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Sexual Health. 



A COMPANION TO 



"MODERN DOMESTIC MEDICINE." 



A PLAIN AND PRACTICAL GUIDE 

FOR THE PEOPLE IN ALL MATTERS CONCERNING 

THE ORGANS OF REPRODUCTION 

IN 

BOTH SEXES AND ALL AGES. 



/ BY 

HENRY G. HANCHETT, M.D., 

Member of the New York County Medical Society ; late Physician to 
the New York Homoeopathic College Dispensary, and to the Wil- 
son Mission Out-patients' Department; formerly Professor 
of the Martha Washington College, Va.; Author 
of "Modern Domestic Medicine," "Teach- 
ing as a Science," and of numerous 
Essays and Lectures. 






issued after careful revision by ■f\ 1 fc^ qOP YIii\ 
A. H. LAIDLAW, AM., M.D.^ j ! 



NEW YORK: 
CHARLES T. HURLBURT, No. 3 EAST 19th STREET. 

1887. 



■RX3.SI 



Entered according to Act of Congress, 
in the year 18S6, by 

HENRY G. HANCHETT, M.D., 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



TROWS 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPA547, 

NEW YORK. 



ft 



PREFACE. 



The following pages form a very important part of 
the author's " Modern Domestic Medicine." They have 
been put by themselves between separate covers in order 
that the method of their use in the family might be de- 
termined in each case in accordance with the views of 
the father or mother. A wofk on domestic medicine to 
be of any service must be at hand when wanted, and 
many persons are not willing that such information as 
these pages contain, should be within easy reach of boys 
and girls. The plan of publishing the following chap- 
ters separately enables such persons to use the author's 
"Domestic" with perfect freedom, as a family guide; 
while it avoids the necessity- that would otherwise exist 
of allowing important omissions in that work. 

The present work is, however, an entirely independent 
one, complete in itself. It contains its own materia 
medica, with index of symptoms, and also treats of some 
subjects, such as menstruation, leucorrhcea, and the dis- 
orders of the " change of life " in women, which are in- 
cluded in the larger work. "With regard to these sub- 
jects, although the books will be found consistent with 
each other, the matter has not been copied, but each 
book has been written by itself, throughout. The list 
of medicines used in this book is largely made up from 



4 PREFACE. 

that in the larger work, and those who have the medi- 
cines contained in that list will require only the articles 
marked by a * in the list below, in order to carry out 
the directions of this book ; and, as a matter of course, 
the author can only be held responsible for his prescrip- 
tions when the dose and strength of medicines are those 
designated in the list which follows this preface and in 
the materia medica at the end of the book. 

In conclusion, the author has no apology to make for 
the plain and outspoken manner in which he has treated 
the delicate subjects considered in the following pages. 
He is fully convinced that much of our disease, as well 
as of the vice in which it originates, is due to the pre- 
vailing ignorance on sexual matters ; that much of this 
ignorance, on the part of young persons at least, is due 
to a shameful neglect of duty on the part of parents, 
growing out of false ideas of delicacy, the wilful blind- 
ness which nurses the flattering delusion that " my child 
is safe ; he is above such thoughts or acts," or in some 
cases, perhaps, out of the ignorance of parents them- 
selves as to what is going on in the world and in the 
bodies of their children, and what they ought to teach. 
Advising parents to instruct their children on sexual 
matters is of very little use unless accompanied with in- 
formation as to what instruction should be given. A 
warning that danger to health and morals lies before the 
young, is to no purpose unless the nature of that danger 
and the path which leads to it be pointed out. Young 
ladies do not know that by exposing their persons in 
evening dress and allowing intimacies and even receiv- 
ing caresses from young gentlemen, they often awaken 



PEEFACE. 5 

passions in the latter which send them to the brothels 
for gratification. Mothers often do not know that the 
long foreskin nature frequently gives their boys is a 
source of more or less constant irritation to their sexual 
organs, and consequent excitation to the animal passions, 
from which circumcision offers the only escape. They 
do not know that the well-dressed decent appearing 
" young lady " whom they pass in the street and who is 
the picture of decorum while they are within earshot, 
will shamelessly ask their sons to attend her to her 
chamber, when she chances to meet them alone. 

To quote Mr. Emerson : " The preservation of the 
species was a point of such necessity, that Nature has 
secured it at all hazards by immensely overloading the 
passion, at the risk of perpetual crime and disorder." 
But St. Paul assures us that " God is faithful, who will 
not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; 
but will with the temptation make also the way of es- 
cape, that ye may be able to endure it." The way of 
escape must be found by the light of instruction point- 
ing out the danger, the disease, the sin, the shame on 
the one hand ; the straight and narrow path of conse- 
cration, self-denial, righteousness, and honor on the 
other. In the hope of lighting some one in the search 
for this path, this book has been written. 

No. 38 West Ninth Street, New York, 
April, 1887. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface < 3 



List of Medicines 8 

CHAPTER I. 
Sexual Health of the Male 9 

CHAPTER II. 
Sexual Health of the Female 36 

CHAPTER HI. 
Marriage 60 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Medicines and their Indications 73 

Index 83 



LIST OF MEDICINES AND AETICLES EE- 
QUIKED. 



N. B. The articles marked * are required in this volume only ; the others are in- 
cluded in the list required by the author's "Modern Domestic Medicine." 

(d) HOMOEOPATHIC PREPARATIONS. 



Name. 


Abbreviation. 


Strength. 


Form. 


Bryonia alba 


Bry. 

Calc. carb. 

Chin. 

Coccul. 

Gels. 

Ipec. 

Lach. 

Phos. ac. 

Puis. 

Sabin. 

Sang. 

Sil. 

Sulph. 

Vib. 


1st decimal 
6th centesimal 
Mother tincture 
3d centesimal 
Mother tincture 
3d centesimal 
9th " 
3d decimal 
3d centesimal 
Mother tincture 
3d centesimal 
12th " 
12th " 
Mother tincture 


No. 20 globules 

it C( 

(C u 


Calcarea carbonica 

China 


Cocculus 


C( it 


Gelsemium 


Liquid. 

No. 20 globules 


Ipecacuanha 


Lachesis 


*Phosphoric acid 

Pulsatilla 


ft u 

a tt 


Sabina 


u it 


Sanguinaria 


CI (C 


Silicea 


c< u 


Sulphur , 


a ci 


Viburnum opulus 


Liquid. 



(b) Ordinary Drugs and Miscellaneous Articles. 



Name. 


Remarks. 


Balsam of Peru. 




Borax. 




Fountain Syringe 


Select the largest size of reservoir. 


Nitrate of Silver 


Buy in solution — a drachm in six ounces 




of water. 


Rubber Sheet. 




*Sandal-wood oil 


Buy in capsules, each containing ten 




drops, of which several dozen will be 




needed. 


Spinal Ice-bag 


Should be fifteen or eighteen inches in 
length. 





SEXUAL HEALTH. 



CHAPTER I. 

SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE MALE. 

It is a mistaken idea that the sexual organs demand 
no attention before puberty. It is true that marked 
changes occur at that epoch, without which the special 
functions of those organs could not be performed, but 
it is also true that sexual life begins before birth, is usu- 
ally or often expressed by outward signs or inward feel- 
ings some years before puberty, which marks neither 
the dawn nor the maturity of that life, and that sexual 
health may be very decidedly influenced by the treat- 
ment the sexual organs receive in the very earliest 
years. The boy and the girl are different creatures from 
the first moment they have the power of expression, and 
the wise parent will not allow the reproductive organs 
to be neglected in infancy from the false idea that they 
need no attention till they are fully developed and ready 
to fulfil their functions. 

With regard to the boy, the first attention demanded 
by the sexual organs, as such, is circumcision. The 



10 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE MALE. 

foreskin is a sort of cap or bag, consisting chiefly of skin 
outside, and mucous membrane inside, which covers over 
an enlargement at the extreme end of the male organ 
of generation, known as the " glans penis." The fore- 
skin is, usually, capable of being retracted, so as to fully 
expose the glans, and even when this cannot be done in 
infancy it often becomes possible in later life. In rare 
instances, however, there is no orifice in this foreskin for 
the escape of urine, or the orifice is too small to admit 
of its retraction behind the glans ; in the former case 
making an immediate operation necessary for the con- 
tinuance of life itself. Far more frequently the foreskin 
is so long that it extends beyond the glans, and its re- 
traction is either an impossibility from the superabun- 
dance of flesh or, for the same reason, the foreskin is 
forced over the glans again the moment it is released. 
In any of the above cases the glans remains covered by 
the foreskin, at least until years of maturity, while 
health requires that it be freely exposed. 

The glans penis is perhaps the most sensitive 
point in the whole body, although its sensibility is of a 
peculiar kind, giving rise both to the pleasure peculiar 
to sexual intercourse and, by what is called "reflex 
action," to the emission of the fluid which follows such 
intercourse. The glans is not specially rich in nerves 
of ordinary feeling, and hence its peculiar sensitiveness 
is not readily appreciated, except in connection with 
sexual acts. The nerves are there, however, and excit- 
ing them to action is known to be one of the most ex- 
hausting of the processes of animal life. These nerves 
are excited naturally by contact with the warm and 



CIRCUMCISION. 11 

moist lining of the female organs, combined with fric- 
tion, and a very similar excitement, milder, but vastly 
more enduring, is set up by the contact with an elongated 
foreskin. If, then, this glans be constantly covered by 
loose skin for several of the earlier years of life, the 
delicate sexual organs are maintained in a condition re- 
sembling, in some degree, a perpetual masturbation or 
self-abuse, besides which the irritation so induced is a 
direct and strong temptation to that habit. 

Another reason for exposing the glans is found in the 
fact that around its neck a number of small orifices exist, 
through which is discharged a fluid of peculiar odor and 
properties. Unless this discharge is frequently washed 
away it sets up an irritation closely resembling some of 
the impure diseases to which these organs are liable, and 
it can evidently be better cared for where the glans is 
freely exposed than under other circumstances. 

In these two conditions we find the sources of many 
of the nervous disorders which are known to be caused 
by a long or tight foreskin, and among which are troub- 
les of every sort in all parts of the body, including 
wetting the bed, stammering, twitchings, headache, epi- 
lepsy, and even something very like hip disease ; none 
of which troubles, when arising from a long foreskin, 
can be permanently cured without first circumcising the 
patient. 

General as well as sexual health, then, re- 
quires that the glans penis be freely exposed, and that 
the foreskin be habitually and permanently retracted, 
and to accomplish this exposure and retraction from 
earliest infancy circumcision is usually necessary. This 



12 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE MALE. 

rite, as is well known, was made one of fundamental 
religious importance among the Jews, but was by no 
means limited to the descendants of Abraham, and un- 
doubtedly was established primarily as a sanitary pre- 
caution. The eighth day of life being the established 
one amongst a race of people scattered over all parts of 
the globe, shows conclusively that the act can scarcely 
be performed at too early an age if the infant be other- 
wise healthy. By all means, then, let every boy baby 
be circumcised at the earliest convenient day — of course 
committing the operation to a surgeon — and let every 
boy or man of whatever age also undergo the operation 
unless he can habitually retain the foreskin retracted so 
as to fully expose the glans penis. 

But a long foreskin is by no means the only source of 
irritation from which the immature sexual organs must 
be protected. Great care must be taken to guard them 
from unnecessary handling, even in washing, and too 
much pains cannot be bestowed upon the choice of a 
nurse with regard to this very thing. Some nurses will 
endeavor to soothe a child to sleep by tickling the 
privates, and many a boy has thus been taught by his 
nurse to seek pleasures of which he should have had no 
knowledge whatever. 

For pleasure is associated with many move- 
ments of the sexual parts in the earliest years of life, 
and it is probably to this fact that we must look for an 
explanation of the fondness children manifest for the 
amusement of sliding down a stair-balustrade, a form 
of play which ought to be looked upon with disfavor. 
Play in general, however — active, romping, boisterous 



PLAY AND EXERCISE. 13 

play, of boys and girls together, regardless of noise, 
dirt, and proprieties — is always to be looked upon as the 
most natural and healthful employment in which chil- 
dren can engage, and little fear need be felt of their 
having too much of it. The danger lies entirely the 
other way, for fashion and propriety, school-boards and, 
alas ! poverty, combine to deny to the rising generation 
its fair share of out-door play, with the essential acces- 
sories of noise, dirt, and torn clothes. 

As the boy grows older it becomes of the ut- 
most importance that he should be actively employed, 
and that his parents should retain his perfect confi- 
dence. The more physical exertion and the more play- 
mates, both boys and girls, a boy has, the less likely 
will he be to have any morbid tendencies toward habits 
which at his age are certainly not natural or dependent 
upon natural sexual instincts ; for such instincts, if al- 
lowed to come of themselves, would wait upon the ma- 
turity of the organs through which they must find ex- 
pression, and are hence unnatural, however strong, in 
earlier years. But playmates are apt to be the princi- 
pal teachers of the young boy, and they often teach 
w T hat would be better unlearned. It becomes, then, a 
matter of the utmost importance that parents hold on 
to the boy's confidence, so that nothing shall enter his 
mind to be concealed from them, and no teaching from 
whatever source shall be preferred to theirs. And 
while it is doubtless the best plan to keep the boy's 
mind as far as possible from the sexual organs and 
their uses, let no parent delude himself with the idea 
that thoughts of these things can be entirely excluded, 



14 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE MALE. 

Too much of what goes on in the animal world, too 
much that is tolerated in the daily papers, comes under 
his notice, too many of his daily experiences are com- 
pared with those of his companions, to make it possible 
to exclude entirely from his mind questions that sooner 
or later will find their answers, perhaps in a way par- 
ents would not prefer. Boys will even make a compet- 
itive game of the simple emptying of their bladders, 
and in this act may easily begin a habit difficult enough 
to uproot. 

A boy should be taught that the privates must 
not be handled except for washing and passing water. 
He can easily be shown that the urine is a fluid which 
carries impurities out of his body that would do him 
harm if retained, and that handling the privates may 
result in obstruction to the flow of urine, and thus make 
him sick. There is no need of teaching more till his 
questions demand it ; but when his curiosity is aroused 
the safest course is to satisfy it with the wholesome ar- 
ticle of truthful information, rather than run the risk 
of having the moral poison that circulates all too freely 
among the young, taken into the mind and accepted as 
sound teaching with regard to sexual relations. 

Fuller informatSon than this ought to be given a 
boy, regardless of his questions, not later than the ad- 
vent of puberty. This crisis is signalized by the growth 
of hair at the lower part of the abdomen, and by the 
change of voice. At about the same time the organs of 
reproduction begin to secrete a fluid upon which de- 
pends their power to perform their part in the preser- 
vation of the species, and, as we shall see later, it is the 



INSTRUCTION FOE BOYS. 15 

accumulation of this fluid, and the consequent desire to 
empty the organ in which it is contained, that gives 
rise to the sexual instinct upon which the life of the 
race depends. Nature will discharge this fluid spon- 
taneously at long intervals ; but its presence will awaken 
feelings that will need but little instruction, of a kind 
sure to come to every boy in the land, no matter where 
his home or how sacredly guarded, to start him upon a 
course of masturbation, or self -abuse, which may lead 
to very unhappy consequences. The hope of keeping a 
boy in ignorance of this practice, and the pleasure to 
be derived from it, may as well be abandoned first as 
last, for it is simply impossible. Nature has determined 
that the species shall be preserved at any cost, and the 
only way to guard a boy from the dangers of masturba- 
tion is by clearly recognizing the fact that temptation is 
inevitable, and that the only protection is in developing 
strength of character to resist, and by full instruction as 
to the nature, office, use, and abuse of the sexual organs. 
Teach him that these organs have but one 
proper use, and were created with but one object-— the 
preservation of the species. Show him that there is but 
one way in which they can properly fulfil their mission — 
through marriage. Call his attention to the fact that the 
Creator has provided for the rearing of a human being far 
more carefully than for the reproduction of lower ani- 
mals, has designed that the child shall have the nurture 
and attention of both father and mother, and has made 
it evident, both in nature and in revelation, that no plan 
of preserving the species that does not provide each 
child with an acknowledged and responsible father, as 



16 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE MALE. 

well as mother, can meet with His approval, or be for 
the best interests of the race. Show him that while 
pleasure is associated w T ith this, as with all properly 
used natural functions, there is, and can be, no plan of 
securing that pleasure, without performing the associ- 
ated duties, that will not cost more in pain and suffer- 
ing, eventually, than it returns in pleasure. Teach him 
that his early inclination to seek such pleasure is one of 
his opportunities to test and strengthen his character ; 
that the grade of his manhood is established by the 
amount he can overcome, and that his value in the 
world depends much on the question as to whether he 
will rule his body, or his body him ; that by cultivating 
the mind and the other parts of the body he can hinder 
these organs and their desires from becoming too strong 
for him, while their natural growth will be associated 
with the development of gentleness, tenderness, unsel- 
fishness, and other mental traits which belong to nobil- 
ity of character, and is intended to remind him in time 
of the duties of manhood to which he is approaching, in 
order that he may prepare for parenthood himself, first 
by the development of his own character, and second 
by the wise choice of a mother for his future children. 

Moreover, this boy should be taught that 
no function of his body exhausts vitality so rapidly as 
the sexual function ; that it is one intended to be 
shared, not only by all the members of his own body, 
but also by all those of another and different body, and 
that to drain the distinctively sexual organs in solitude 
is to abuse them, because it is to imperfectly and in- 
completely perform a very delicate, complicated, and 



MASTURBATION. 17 

important act. He should have explained to him, also, 
the nature, strength, and danger of habit, because it is 
the habit of self-abuse that is to be most of all dreaded 
in this connection. But do not teach him that the sim- 
ple act of self -abuse in itself is a thing of overwhelming 
danger, for this is not true, and the boy will unquestion- 
ably satisfy himself sooner or later that it is not true, 
and, detecting you in one falsehood, he will discredit 
all your teaching. Besides, when a boy gets his mind 
fixed on the idea that the act of self -abuse will of itself 
lead to dire consequences, he becomes the easy prey of 
designing quacks, who, through advertisements and cir- 
culars, some of which will be sure to reach his eye, will 
awaken fears that will torment him every time any ail- 
ment affects his body, and probably extort from him 
money for worse than useless, if not harmful, medica- 
tion. Self -abuse is undoubtedly an evil in itself, be- 
cause it is incomplete and unnatural, and sad is his 
state who has bound himself with the chains this vice 
can so deftly forge ; but its chief danger is that it so 
quickly and easily becomes a habit, and then it is in- 
dulged beyond the power of the body to recuperate. 

But if his state be sad who has lost his sense of man- 
hood in the vice of self- abuse, how much sadder is his 
who has sacrificed self-respect, health, strength, and 
money in the house of the " strange woman." Nothing 
but shame and remorse wait for him who enters these 
portals. It is unfortunately true that some physicians 
advise those who have bound the chains of the habit of 
self- abuse about their lives, to seek to break them by 
binding over them the stronger chains of the strange 
2 



18 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE MALE. 

woman. Nothing could be more hopeless than to at- 
tempt to gain anything in this way. Illicit indulgence 
must from the nature of the case be irregular, under 
the influence of excitement if not of alcohol, degrading, 
and almost certain to result in diseases loathsome in the 
extreme, painful, and dangerous to life. That should be 
enough were it not also true that prostitution strikes at 
the very root and foundation of society — the family — 
and does nothing and can do nothing to help the indi- 
vidual out of the chains of bad habits. 

The best treatment for these bad habits is the 
preventive, and that is applied by early instruction in 
their evil effects and tendencies, by providing for the 
development of both mind and body, and by guarding 
against moral poison in the reading or conversation of 
the growing boy. Keep an eye on what he reads, and 
consign all books, pamphlets, or circulars devoted to any 
special quack medicine to speedy destruction, and try to 
introduce such newspapers into the family as refuse to 
admit advertisements of quack medicines of any kind — 
a very difficult kind of newspaper to find, unfortunately. 
Keep the boy interested in active sports during his spare 
time by day, and in the evenings, besides wholesome 
games, teach him to read wholesome books, and be sure 
that you know where he is and what he is doing in the 
evenings. Try to give each boy his separate bed and 
bedchamber ; at least let him have a single bed parti- 
tioned off by a screen if it must be in a room with others. 
Let him have plenty of society and send him to a mixed 
school, if possible ; for the family model, male and female, 
man and wo::ian, boy and girl, in constant association and 



TREATMENT OP MASTURBATION. 19 

contact, is the true one for school-days as for all the 
other periods of life. But keep him out of the city 
public school, when you can make a choice. The press- 
ure there is too great to be resisted, in favor of cramming 
facts and training memory to the neglect of true educa- 
tion — teaching principles and cultivating character — 
which should be the main object of school- work. 

But if habits of self-abuse, with the consequent 
spermatorrhoea or seminal emissions (the so-called " wet- 
dreams "), have become seated, they must be broken up 
by some such plan as suggested for their prevention, 
with additions. Diet is an important consideration, and 
should be rather light but nutritious, consisting of grains, 
vegetables, brown-bread, rice and Indian puddings, fruit, 
fish, oysters, and, above all, milk. Meats should be used 
in great moderation and must be well cooked. The fol- 
lowing named articles should be entirely forbidden dur- 
ing the treatment : viz., coffee, cinnamon, nutmeg, pep- 
per, mustard, vanilla, radishes, horseradish, onions, rhu- 
barb, tomatoes, water-cresses, and sorrel. Late meals 
must be avoided. The supper should be light, and taken 
not later than six o'clock. Other important elements 
in the treatment are, systematic gymnastic training, 
early hours, a hard bed, a cool sleeping-room and light 
bedcovers, insistence upon rising and dressing at the 
first waking moment, and, if possible, the constant day 
and night society of one who wishes to help in the cure 
of the habit and who is old enough and mature enough to 
be a guard while yet a companion. A daily cold sponge- 
bath before breakfast or at bedtime is also to be ad- 
vised, and the moral nature must be aroused to fight to 



20 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE MALE. 

the utmost against the degrading animalism that is be- 
trayed by persistence in habits of sensuality. 

The best medicine for the weakness upon which " wet- 
dreams " depend is Phos. ac. which may be taken in 
tablespoonf ul doses, four times a day, using a solution of 
twelve globules in two-thirds of a glass of water. A 
still better remedy is the sitz-bath taken twice daily, 
before breakfast and before supper, or before dinner 
and at bedtime — at least two and a half hours after 
supper. It must be exactly 95° F., must be taken in 
a common wash-tub of wood, in which the patient must 
sit quietly for full thirty minutes, allowing the water to 
cover his hips and belly. A sheet should be spread over 
the patient and tub and gathered about the neck so as 
to exclude draughts. Further treatment, if any be 
needed, should be under the direction of a physician, 
but choose one who will not rely upon medicines only, 
for these cases will not yield usually unless treated by 
the steel sound which must be passed into the bladder 
not of tener than once a week, and by a physician. 

The sexual organs of a growing boy need no at- 
tention whatever except circumcision and cleanliness, 
unless, of course, some accident befall them. The more 
completely they are let alone the better, and some au- 
thors assert, that if they can be entirely left to them- 
selves no fluid whatever will escape from them. This 
is probably a mistake, but the instances in which these 
organs receive absolutely no handling are so rare as to 
make it difficult to state what does occur under such cir- 
cumstances. An occasional involuntary loss of the 
seminal fluid, say once a month, or even somewhat 



SEMINAL EMISSIONS. 21 

oftener, is of no serious consequence unless it be asso- 
ciated with other evidences of the presence of disease. 
But frequent "wet-dreams" signify weakness of the 
sexual organs, and this is the usual result of self -abuse. 
The fluid itself seems to be an expensive one for the 
blood to elaborate, and its frequent discharge by even 
the most natural method, is something of a drain upon 
the resources of the body. "When it accumulates in too 
large quantity, nature will discharge it during the re- 
laxed state of the parts induced by sleep or disease, in 
the form of what are called " wet-dreams," and it may 
safely be said that no other form of discharge of this 
fluid, either by masturbation or sexual intercourse is 
necessary to the well-being and health of the reproduc- 
tive organs at any time of life. 



It is a very prevalent opinion that sexual de- 
sires indicate the necessity of sexual indulgence. It 
may safely be asserted that this opinion is an error. 
Sexual desires are among the strongest influences known 
to human nature ; very few men are able to go through 
life without paying some heed to such desires ; many 
have even confounded those desires with the strongest 
and loftiest passion known to the human heart, and 
have named these irrepressible longings with the sacred 
name of Love. But their strength simply indicates the 
importance put by Nature upon the preservation of the 
species, they assure permanent vitality to the institution 
of marriage and make it certain that men, as a class, 
will always provide themselves with wives — or worse. 



22 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE MALE. 

Nature never intended that animal impulses should over- 
ride the will and the free choice of any individual man, 
that they should be masters and make him slave. Prop- 
erly understood, sexual desires make a man better, for 
they call to mind his duties to society and posterity, and 
show him that he cannot indulge his baser nature, give 
rein to appetite and passion, and neglect his mind and 
spirit, without stamping upon some other life more or 
less of the evil consequences of his acts. Properly used, 
sexual desires lead a man into the holiest, happiest, and 
most useful relations in life, and give him a right to the 
name which God himself has chosen as best symbolizing 
the relationship which He would have us consider His 
toward us — Father. Let us then seek to understand 
the proper nature and use of the sexual organs. 

A healthy man develops from his blood a fluid 
which in some mysterious way is capable, under certain 
circumstances, of calling into life a new being who, 
starting from an egg less than one one-hundredth of 
an inch in diameter, and developing in and out of the 
mother's body for some years, will eventually and 
throughout life present unmistakable evidences of the 
source of the fluid which originated this new life, in the 
form of remarkable resemblances to certain traits of 
the person in whose body that fluid was secreted. This 
fluid (called " semen " or the " seminal fluid ") gradually 
collects in a small sac which it sooner or later distends, 
and by so doing sets in motion a train of phenomena 
designed to bring about its discharge, but extremely 
complicated and very imperfectly understood. The 
mind is influenced powerfully, and either a vague in- 



SEXUAL DESIRES. 23 

stinctive attraction toward members of the opposite 
sex, or a very definite impulse toward the sexual act is 
^aroused, according to the experience, previous habits, 
knowledge, or moral stamina of the particular individual. 
This mental impression reacts upon the sexual organs 
themselves, which thus more powerfully attract atten- 
tion to their desires, while their physical condition is 
automatically made more favorable for carrying the 
fluid to be discharged into proximity to the egg to be 
vitalized by it ; a change of form and position occurring 
in these organs, that closes the outlet from the urinary 
bladder and arranges nerves, muscles, and passages con- 
veniently for the emptying of the little sac containing 
the vitalizing fluid. 

If, now, no attention be paid to the demands of 
the organs in question, the fluid sets up nervous influ- 
ences which result in its discharge, usually during the 
hours of sleep, a fact which is of itself amply sufficient 
to overthrow any claims that the sexual act is absolutely 
necessary. Habitual and persistent neglect of the sex- 
ual desires will result in their subsidence and the length- 
ening of the intervals at which they are felt, owing to 
diminished production of the fluid which is their prime 
excitant ; and eventually the accumulation of this fluid 
will entirely cease, but not till long after maturity and 
persistent repression shall have fixed the character and 
state in life of the individual. 

But if, on the other hand, indulgence be 
accorded to sexual desires, only one right, natural, and 
healthful course is open to the man — that, namely, of 
joining in the bonds of holy wedlock the woman who 



24 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE MALE. 

commands the love of his heart, the respect of his mind, 
and who, recognizing that the sexual organs, so-called, 
by no means fully comprehend all the sexual functions,* 
meets his advances actively with eyes, lips, breasts, 
limbs, and body as well as with the organs upon which 
her capacity for motherhood depends, assured that in so 
doing she is responding to the heaven-appointed im- 
pulses and methods that can raise her to the lofty pinna- 
cle of motherhood, and give her children animated with 
the qualities which have called forth her love for her 
husband and given her a right to respect herself. In 
this way, and in this way only, can the sexual instincts 
fulfil the design of the Creator. Any attempt to limit 
the act exclusively to the organs which false shame or 
prudery would ignore, and to deny to them their full 
dignity and activity, can only result in local excitement 
but little better than masturbation, save that it can re- 
sult in offspring of a puny, bloodless, half-vital sort. 
Any attempt to give play to these instincts out of wed- 
lock involves contact with moral poison and physical, 
disease-breeding filth ; involves the soul-consuming ex- 
citements of law-breaking, of skulking from discovery, 
and of spasmodic, irregular, and inordinate sexual activ- 
ity ; costs health, strength, wealth, self-respect, and vir- 
tue ; sacrifices purity and the restraining and elevating 
power of a true valuation of womanhood; exchanges 
liberty for the domination of a creature too vile to be 
called a woman ; barters useful citizenship for the state 
of the criminal sapping the foundations of society by 
striking at marriage and the family; and degrades the 
impulse toward fatherhood into a disgusting animalism. 



PROSTITUTION. 25 

Nor can these facts be too widely proclaimed or too 
much emphasized. The mothers and fathers of this 
land are too prone to nurse the flattering delusion that 
their sons are pure and innocent, and will escape the 
wiles of the strange woman, and hence the impression- 
able and teachable period of youth is allowed to pass 
without the needed warning, for fear that the warning 
itself may open the avenue to temptation. The idea is 
delusive. The danger of the warning is nothing in 
comparison with the danger of silence, which exposes 
ignorance to the inevitable, the positively unavoidable 
temptation, the power of which probably few women 
realize. The temptress lurks and bides her opportun- 
ity. Rarely does she speak when a woman is within 
hearing. The whispered word in the ear of youth is 
her weapon, and what man would be likely to say to 
the woman he esteems that such a word had been 
spoken by one of those who have often every outward 
appearance of being ladies ? This evil lurks and hides, 
and those who would fight it must neglect no safe- 
guard and spare no warning. No man can reach twenty 
without being tempted many times — no matter whether 
he live on the farm, in village, or in city. For any 
mother to believe that her son will not be put to the 
test is the height of folly and blindness. But there is 
hope that he may pass through the fire of temptation 
unscathed if he be but thoroughly armed and equipped 
with knowledge of the danger and the way of escape, 
with principle and strength of character, and a high 
idea of his responsibilities to God, society, and himself. 

The sexual act is an exhausting one. It takes 



26 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE MALE. 

hold of the whole body, and demands the best energies 
of every part of the system. It requires so much of 
nerve-force that it ought always to be followed by a 
period of rest. It is true that there are states of the 
system in which vitality is low while the impulse to the 
act is unusually strong, as is sometimes the case in con- 
sumption and with those who have indulged the sexual 
appetites to excess ; but such demands are abnormal, 
and should be resisted precisely as should the ravenous, 
insatiable hunger that is a symptom of some forms of 
dyspepsia. ISTo rule can be given regarding the fre- 
quency with which the sexual act may be performed. 
Men differ greatly in regard to their capacities in this 
as in all other respects. It may be said, however, that 
when anything more lasting or unfavorable than a tem- 
porary feeling of lassitude follows the act, it is indica- 
tive of excess. But the act should always be fully com- 
pleted when once begun. With some men this is 
impossible by a single effort. On account of some idio- 
syncrasy they experience a discharge of semen almost 
as soon as they attempt sexual intercourse — a prema- 
ture and unsatisfying result that should be followed in 
from two to three hours by another effort which will 
usually fully and properly empty the sac of its semen. 

in this connection is the proper place to speak 
of the disadvantages of long engagements. It is, prob- 
ably, too much to expect of human nature that two 
young persons should be very much in love with each 
other, and should have frequent opportunities of seeing 
each other alone, without indulging in sundry endear- 
ing words, looks, and embraces ; nor has the author one 



SEXUAL EXCITEMENT. 27 

word to say in disparagement of what goes so far to 
turn life into a poem, and put softness and sweetness 
into natures too prone to harshness and selfishness. 
But there are proper limitations for all things. ISTo 
man can indulge in such caresses without experiencing 
more or less activity in the sexual organs. This is a 
matter wholly involuntary and beyond his control ; so 
his body has been made and so it must act, whether he 
will or no, if he put himself in a position to apply the 
stimulus. Now this is well enough within bounds, but 
for this excitement and partial activity of the sexual 
organs to go on for months with no result will surely 
have a bad effect. Three months is long enough for 
an engagement, especially if the parties can see each 
other frequently. A courtship conducted by corre- 
spondence might continue longer without the same 
danger, but long engagements should be avoided where 
possible. 

The diseases of the sexual organs to which men 
are specially liable are Gonorrhoea, which in popular 
language is designated Clap ; Syphilis, which is limited 
to the sexual organs only in its first stage, and may even 
enter the system through other channels, and which is 
popularly known as the Pox ; and Chancroids or Vene- 
real Sores. These diseases are none of them suitable 
for treatment by the patient himself, or by domestic 
methods. They should send the patient to his physician 
as soon as they are recognized. But a few remarks upon 
their causes, nature, and proper treatment will be ap- 
propriate here, and may save the sufferer from mistake^ 



28 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE MALE. 

and unnecessary anxiety. Many misconceptions regard- 
ing these diseases are prevalent, and result in much evil. 
Quacks thrive upon them, partly because of these mis- 
apprehensions, partly because patients are reluctant to 
have the family physician know of their existence, and 
partly, no doubt, because of the medical gullibility of a 
class still large in the community. 

Gonorrhoea is an inflammation of the membrane 
lining the canal through which the urine passes after 
leaving the bladder. In women the disease has a dif- 
ferent seat, but it is the purpose here to speak only of 
gonorrhoea in men. It is caused by the contact of irri- 
tating matters of a certain kind directly with this mem- 
brane, and many authors claim that the only substance 
that will produce it is the discharge from another case 
of the same disease. Be that as it may, there is a dis- 
ease known as Urethritis, or inflammation of the lin- 
ing membrane of this same urinary canal, which an un- 
professional person would be unable to distinguish from 
a true gonorrhoea, unless by positive knowledge of its 
cause, and no attempt will be made in this place to 
distinguish the two. The enormous prevalence of this 
disorder, and its indiscriminate invasion of all classes 
of society, are among the most shocking revelations 
that come to a medical practitioner, and if known gen- 
erally, would doubtless do much to break down that 
hugely false idea that safety for the young is to be found 
in ignorance on sexual subjects. Ignorance lends power 
to temptation, and temptation comes to all in some de- 
gree. For nine hundred and ninety-nine of every thou- 
sand cases of gonorrhoea are due to impure sexual inter- 



GOiSTORRHCEA. 29 

course. The contact of the mucous membrane with the 
impure and irritating discharges which are very common 
among women who submit their bodies to indiscriminate 
intercourse, sets up an acute inflammation which occa- 
sions, first, a tingling and itching on passing water, and 
later, a discharge which at the start is slight and merely 
glues up the outlet, but soon becomes abundant, thick, 
like matter, and accompanied with intense pain in pass- 
ing water, and erections which are also very painful. 

As has been said, it is not the intention to fully de- 
scribe the disease or its treatment in this place, but to 
allude to some misapprehensions concerning it. 

And, first, the disease is not always due to impure 
sexual intercourse. The irritating substance which causes 
it may be a discharge of the " whites " in the wife of the 
patient — a disease to which she may become a victim in 
the most innocent manner possible — or it may be the 
menstrual discharge itself. Again, the disease may be 
caused by simple excesses of intercourse, or by irritating 
discharges in the urine of the patient himself, as in 
some cases of gout, and the inflammation may result 
from accidental wounding of the penis by some mechan- 
ical injury. There is perhaps a bare possibility that in 
some cases the disease has been communicated from one 
man to another by the patient's allowing the discharge 
to touch some article which was afterward touched by 
the private member of another person — such cases are, 
however, too rare to be worth considering. 

Secondly, the disease is by no means a trivial affair. 
It is the most fatal of all the venereal diseases, and 
often results in permanent, or at best very intractable 



30 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE MALE. 

injuries to the sexual organs, and to the body generally. 
One attack makes the patient more liable to a second, 
and each subsequent attack is more difficult to cure than 
its predecessors. 

Thirdly, it is not a disease to be quickly or easily 
cured, nor is the patient wise who takes his case into his 
own hands, who delays treatment, or who seeks the ad- 
vice of either a druggist or a quack. Moreover, it seems 
almost unnecessary to remark, the disease can never be 
cured by " giving it away " to someone else. The pa- 
tient who gets entirely rid of an ordinary attack of gon- 
orrhoea in six weeks may count himself unusually fortu- 
nate. Many patients continue treatment for from two 
to five or six months, and strictures, inflammations of 
the testicles, bladder, eyes, or deeper organs may easily 
complicate the case and make longer treatment neces- 
sary. 

With regard to treatment, as has been said, a 
physician should be consulted, and one should be se- 
lected who is neither afraid of local measures or so 
bound to them that he will use them indiscriminately 
in every case. In the four or five days that usually in- 
tervene between the contact, and the development of 
the inflammation, injections offer the most promising 
and helpful mode of treatment, but they are never safe 
in the hands of patients, are never admissible in the 
stage of inflammation, although they may come in again 
after that is passed and while a mild discharge — a 
Gleet — still persists. Late in the treatment, too, it 
may be necessary to pass steel sounds into the bladder 
once a week or so. The best medicine is usually the 



TREATMENT OF GONORRIKEA. 31 

oil of sandal-wood, wliich may be had put up in cap- 
sules each containing one dose, or the oil itself may be 
taken on a lump of sugar, ten drops, four times a day. 
The medicines wanted in the disease are numerous, and 
no one of them has a record of universal success. The 
treatment is very greatly facilitated by absolute rest in 
bed and the use of a diet of very plain food, chiefly vege- 
table, and absolutely excluding all drinks containing 
the least alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tomatoes, rhubarb, 
onions, garlic, strawberries, sorrel, water-cresses, aspara- 
gus, and even meats. An abundance of water should be 
drank, and of course, sexual indulgences must be en- 
tirely abandoned. 

Chancroid or the venereal sore, is a disease which 
seems to be almost exclusively propagated by direct 
contagion in impure sexual intercourse, but the sore is 
one that can only be distinguished from the chancre or 
first symptom of syphilis by the careful examination of 
a physician, and even he is hardly warranted in pro- 
nouncing a positive opinion in all cases without making 
experiments and holding his judgment in reserve for 
several days. The disease is mentioned here merely for 
the purpose of informing those who may be afflicted 
with a sore on the private parts that it does not neces- 
sarily prove that they have that justly dreaded disease, 
syphilis. While a chancroid may give rise to much 
trouble and is the usual cause of buboes — those distress- 
ing abscesses in the groin popularly named " blue balls" 
— it is still a purely local disease, and when cured it 
leaves no blood-taint behind. 

Syphilis, however, is a constitutional disease of the 



32 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE MALE. 

most dreadful proportions, pronounced by many emi- 
nent medical authors to be incurable, eating its way, year 
after year, into the very bones and marrow, making a 
wreck of both body and mind, and destroying innocent 
children as well as the victim who can trace to his own 
act the origin of his plague. Probably the disease is 
curable by long-continued, patient, and persistent effort, 
but it so often suddenly breaks out again, after the most 
thorough treatment has suppressed, perhaps for months, 
all signs of its existence, that one is disposed to doubt 
the reality and permanence of many of the so-called 
cures. But this is not the place to discuss the disease 
or its treatment further than to say that as its first 
symptom — a chancre — is very similar to another and 
perfectly curable disease — venereal sore — so its later ex- 
pressions resemble quite closely other maladies, many of 
which are of inconsiderable importance. Many a man 
has been rendered miserable by the thought that he was 
afflicted with the dire plague of syphilis when his sole 
trouble was a tetter or some other harmless skin disease. 
When in doubt, then, consult some regular, well- 
known, honest physician ; tell him your whole story, 
and when you know positively what is the matter, it 
will be time enough to consider what has to be done 
about it. 

Syphilis first manifests itself by a local sore at the 
point of contact of the poison conveying the disease. 
This sore may be so small as to escape notice, or it may 
be considered of no importance, for, as we shall soon 
see, it is by no means limited to the sexual, organs. 
After a time, which is extremely variable extending 



SYPHILLIS. 33 

from ten days to even six months, this first sore will be 
followed by other symptoms of a superficial character. 
Eruptions on the skin and on the lining membrane of 
the mouth will be noticed, the glands may enlarge, the 
hair may fall off, perhaps the throat will be sore ; and 
from this beginning the disease will go deeper and 
deeper into the body unless arrested by treatment. 

Any discharge from a syphilitic patient is capable 
of communicating his disease, if it be active at the time 
in the patient. There are periods of seeming quiescence 
during which the poison of syphilis is apparently dor- 
mant in the system, and at such times contact with the 
patient may not result in the communication of the dis- 
ease ; but except at such times the plague passes from 
one person to another with fearful facility. A pipe or 
drinking-cup used by a patient may communicate his 
malady, a kiss may easily convey the poison and the 
kissing of infants born of syphilitic parents has done 
much to spread the disease. Of course the principal 
mode of contagion is in sexual intercourse, and thus 
many an innocent wife has acquired this loathsome and 
deadly plague from a vicious husband. 'No matter 
what the stage of the disease, it can be communi- 
cated in these ways, and it always begins with the local 
sore at the point of contact. 

It will be seen from the above, that a person afflicted 
with this disease, cannot be too careful to avoid every 
possible form of contact with his fellows, and of course 
no such person, if single, has a right to think of mar- 
riage until he is not merely pronounced to be cured, but 
until he has passed a full year after his cure is pro- 



34 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE MALE. 

nounced without the smallest sign of relapse. One can- 
not be too careful on this point for, as remarked above, 
long periods are often passed without a sign of the dis- 
ease, which will then break out in full vigor and pro- 
ceed with its work of spreading a living death through 
the system. Syphilis is probably a curable disease but 
its consequences are so dreadful that no man who has the 
slightest self-respect will run any risk of contaminating 
the blood of an innocent wife and of causing her to en- 
dure the pains of child-birth only to bury her infant 
within a few months or years. The only way of avoid- 
ing such risks is by submitting the case to professional 
treatment, and when it is cured by still waiting long 
enough to leave no doubt that the cure is permanent be- 
fore venturing to enter the bonds of matrimony. 

With regard to the other impediments to 
marriage on the part of the man — impotency and ster- 
ility—they are not conditions that an unprofessional 
person could recognize, and therefore no man should 
give himself any concern about them till he has secured 
the opinion of a physician regarding them ; but of course 
no man who has any reason to suspect the existence of 
such impediments should contract a marriage without 
consulting a medical man. Impotency signifies a 
permanent condition of inability to effect sexual con- 
nection, such as might result from an entire destruction 
of the penis and such as does occasionally result from 
nervous causes brought on by long-continued misuse of 
the sexual organs or by disease. Sterility signifies a 
condition in which the fecundating germs are absent 
from the seminal fluid, thus preventing a man from be- 



IMPEDIMENTS TO MARRIAGE. 35 

coming a father, although he may be able to have con- 
nection and to discharge a fluid which can only be 
known to be sterile after a careful microscopic exami- 
nation. There are temporary conditions which are per- 
fectly curable which simulate impotency, and these are 
magnified by quacks into an importance which does not 
belong to them, in order to frighten the ignorant out of 
money for worse than useless treatment. The impor- 
tant relations and the delicate character of the sexual 
organs make it necessary to put the treatment of their 
diseased conditions into the hands of the physician, but 
the advertising specialist and his false and overdrawn 
printed statements and insinuations should be shunned, 
and the honest, settled, regular practitioner should be 
frankly consulted and his advice confidently followed. 



CHAPTER 11. 

SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE FEMALE, 

While the sexual organs of little girls rarely require 
such special attention as is involved in circumcision for 
their brothers, the corresponding operation is necessary 
at times, and certainly not less care should be expended 
upon the selection of their nurses. The same pleasur- 
able sensations which it is possible to arouse in the boy- 
baby's private parts lie dormant also in his little sister's 
organs, and can be called into action by an unscrupulous 
nurse to quiet the child, regardless of the serious conse- 
quences to the physical and moral nature which may 
ensue. There are foreign nurses in this country, too, 
who make a habit of breaking up the hymen — the 
u maiden-head," or membrane that closes in the vagina 
— in new-born or very young girls ; a practice which, of 
course, should be condemned. 

But care must be taken to maintain perfect 
cleanliness about the private parts, and to avoid all such 
sources of irritation as are found in woollen diapers ; in 
skin diseases due to neglected discharges upon the dia- 
pers, to ill-fitting cloths or careless washing ; and in the 
crawling forward from the back passage of worms, in 
case such pests should afflict the little infant. All of 
these causes may contribute to derange the sexual or- 
gans of girls at a very tender age, and even in the earli- 



SEXUAL HEALTH IN LITTLE GIKLS 37 

est years the female sexual apparatus is of prime impor- 
tance with regard to the physical well-being of the future 
woman. 

And conversely, the general physical well-being of the 
girl or woman is of prime importance in the mainte- 
nance of sexual health and activity. A woman differs 
from a man more or less in every department of her 
nature, and these differences, one and all, are calculated 
to fit her for the special work of motherhood. Every 
part of her body and every faculty of her mind is in 
subtle communication and sympathy with the organs in 
which sexual life centres. General health involves sex- 
ual health ; sexual disease inevitably involves general 
ill-health. 

It follows, then, thatthe best foundation for sexual 
health will be laid by the most judicious attention to 
general health in those years during which sexual life is 
comparatively quiescent owing to the undeveloped state 
of the organs through which it finds expression. En- 
courage " tom-boy-ism " and activity by every possible 
means in the growing girl, and never think of finding 
fault with dirt or rents acquired in healthful sport. Let 
her join her brothers and their friends in romping out 
of doors, and keep her in the open air and at active 
sport as much and as long as possible. Be sure she has 
plenty of sleep and let her wake up when she will in the 
morning, and in general let the body and its health be 
the chief considerations till childhood is past. 

Sexual feelings are probably less likely to be 
awakened in girls than in boys before puberty. In fact, 
it seems to be true through life that distinctively sexual 



38 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE FEMALE. 

desires are, on the average, less imperious in the female 
than in the male. At least, society is organized on this 
hypothesis, and it is one that seems reasonable enough 
from the fact that in women, no such main-spring of 
passion can be discovered as is found in man in the se- 
cretion of the semen and the distention of the sac in 
which it is stored. But on the other hand, nothing is 
more certain than that even very young girls do some- 
times manifest decided capacity for sexual pleasure, and 
it therefore becomes a matter of importance that parents 
should be on their guard, and that young girls as well as 
boys should be taught the functions, and the dangers of 
abuse of the genitals. 

Questions will present themselves to the girl's mind 
as to the boy's, and she will not be behind him in seek- 
ing answers. None but honest answers will stand the 
test of time, and keep intact that perfect confidence in 
parents which is the only security for the maintenance 
of a wholesome parental influence. But as a matter of 
course it is the best plan in early life to keep the mind 
as far from sexual subjects as possible, and to do this 
reliance must be placed on general instruction in delicacy 
and modesty, upon activity and constant employment, 
and upon the positive teaching that no handling or irri- 
tating of the privates, except for washing, is good for 
them, but that, on the contrary, it may do harm. 

The exception just made is, however, one of great 
importance. Young girls frequently have so impressed 
upon them an idea of the shamef ulness of touching the 
privates, in fact in some cases almost of the disgrace of 
having privates at all, that cleanliness of those parts is 



WASHING THE VULVA. 39 

neglected with far worse than ordinary consequences. 
There are glands between the inner and outer lips of 
the external genitals, discharging themselves into the 
furrow at that point, precisely as the glands under the 
foreskin of the male organ discharge about the head in 
which it terminates, and this discharge allowed to re- 
main untouched dries out partially and becomes, in the 
one case as in the other, a source of persistent irritation 
such as may lead to disease and to bad habits. It not 
infrequently happens that persistent itching and discom- 
fort, nervousness, irritability, peevish restlessness, dis- 
content, melancholy, and even mental disturbance in 
girls and unmarried women who have been taught never 
to touch the privates, may be completely cured by sim- 
ply separating the larger and smaller lips that are found 
on either side of the vagina, and cleaning out from the 
furrow between them a mass of cheesy matter, the ac- 
cumulated discharge of the glands at that point. So 
greatly have very serious symptoms been benefited in so 
many cases by this simple procedure that it must be 
thought an important matter to instruct girls and women 
to separate these lips and wash between them at least 
once a month, and in warm weather — say from May to 
November — as often as once a week. 

And girls should be taught before puberty 
what they are to expect at that time. The flow of blood 
coming for the first time to an uninformed girl is more 
than likely to frighten her into doing something to ar- 
rest the bleeding, and she may easily injure herself for 
the rest of life by applying or sitting in cold water, or 
taking some other ill-advised step. The time of puberty 



40 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE FEMALE. 

cannot be foretold definitely ; it is usually between the 
twelfth and the sixteenth year in this country, and 
the best guide in any given case is the age at which the 
girl's mother began to menstruate, or " have her courses," 
as it is popularly expressed. When the epoch does ar- 
rive, however, there is precisely as much, if not more, 
need of full and careful sexual instruction, as in the case 
of the boy. Natural sexual feeling may be less in the 
girl and the woman than in the boy and the man, but 
it exists, and to it is added the regularly recurring 
monthly flow to which attention must be given ; and it 
would be strange, indeed, if these two elements together 
did not lead many an uninformed girl into the way of 
temptation and even into thoughts and acts certain to be 
followed by disastrous consequences. 

The very bad habit of exciting the sexual organs 
by the hand is undoubtedly one into which many girls 
fall, although it is not so prevalent among them as among 
boys. Its results, however, are somewhat similar, as it 
puts an exhausting drain upon nervous vitality, draws 
blood to the parts, by which means menstrual irregular- 
ities and local pain are brought about ; and it is, in all 
respects, mental, moral, and physical, as disastrous as is 
the corresponding habit among boys. It is to be met 
by much the same course of diet, surroundings, social 
influences, moral and physical treatment, and education, 
as that already advised for the opposite sex. 

And let no mother lull her conscience to sleep 
with the idea that her daughter is above such habits, or 
the temptation to them which comes from natural feel- 
ings misunderstood or misguided. The girl who lacks 



MASTURBATION IN GIRLS. 41 

sexual feeling is as much to be pitied, and is as truly in 
an abnormal condition, as the girl who lacks sight or ap- 
petite ; but the girl who, having sexual feeling without 
knowledge of its significance or proper restraints, ac- 
quires harmful habits ignorantly, as so many do, is far 
more to be pitied than blamed, even when she falls the 
victim of some designing rascal who understands her 
nature better than does the mother who was made her 
guardian and instructor by the Creator Himself. The 
supreme sphere and office of woman is motherhood. 
Attain to what she may in other directions, this must 
ever be her crowning glory if it be accepted and used 
in accordance with the divine intention. So long as 
this is true — and it is admitted on all sides — the impor- 
tance and beauty of the organs and functions which 
make tlie office possible must be admitted. It is no 
shame to have organs which can house and nurture a 
budding human life ; it is no shame to study those or- 
gans, and learn how they can best serve the new being 
that will be dependent upon them and their healthy 
condition for a fair start in the race of life. It is a 
shame to consider those organs either nuisances, able to 
put unwelcome responsibilities upon us, or mere sources 
of animal gratification and pleasure, either in or out of 
wedlock ; it is a shame to neglect, trifle with, or abuse 
those organs, as such treatment can but interfere with 
their office of nesting-place for a new soul. 

Let the girl be taught that every menstrual pe- 
riod is a new evidence of her capacity to hand down to 
another generation, not merely her life, but her dispo- 
sition, her mental power or weakness, her ambition, 



42 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE FEMALE. 

her faults, and shortcomings ; that it is a reminder that 
she is responsible to posterity for her habits, and daily 
behavior, and that the important relations of her sexual 
life to every other part of her being, show that she should 
never fail to consider whatever she does in the light 
of its possible influence upon her children. "Women, 
as a rule, are not properly prepared for the simpler, and 
more easily understood duties of child-bearing and nurs- 
ing. Generally, a woman is thought to be a pretty good 
mother if she get her children up to their tenth year 
without making them, or allowing them to become, nui- 
sances to her neighbors. But rare enough are the moth- 
ers who can claim to have successfully coped with 
their duties toward children in their teens, and why 
should not this constantly recurring flow be considered 
as nature's way of reminding them of their life-work, 
in preparing for which they cannot by any possibility 
spend too much time or thought ? Any young girl who 
is taught so to look upon her menstruation and sexual 
organs will be in very little danger of sacrificing her 
health and strength to the momentary, unsatisfactory, 
and degrading pleasure of masturbation, or of falling a 
victim to vice in any form. 

Menstruation, or the monthly flow of blood from 
the womb, usually begins somewhere between the twelfth 
and the sixteenth year, and continues for about thirty 
years, during which time its only healthy interruptions 
are those occasioned by pregnancy and nursing. The 
periods in health are regular, except for a time near the 
beginning, and again near the close of the reproductive 



MENSTRUATION. 43 

portion of a woman's life, which is that portion during 
which menstruation continues. But regularity with re- 
spect to the periods does not mean the same thing for 
every woman ; for with some, two weeks is the usual 
interval, with others, six, while still others experience 
a regular return of the " courses " at almost any time 
between those limits. In other words, every woman is 
a "law unto herself," and what is regularity for her 
must be determined by observing the usual interval at 
which this function is repeated by her body under ordi- 
nary circumstances. Health simply requires its regular 
performance, not its repetition at any stated time. And 
the same thing is true with regard to the duration of 
the flow. With some it is two days, with others, ten ; 
some lose a tablespoonful of blood, others, half a pint. 
As an average, however, it may be said that menstru- 
ation returns once in twenty-eight days, and lasts five 
days. 

The Derangements of Menstruation con- 
sist of irregularities in the quantity, quality, duration, 
or frequency of the flow, and of various symptoms asso- 
ciated with the function. More or less irregularity is 
to be expected at the establishment of the flow, and two 
very important things should be remembered by those 
who are in charge of a girl during this epoch : First, 
no amount of irregularity in the periods or of delay in 
the appearance of the flow will warrant medical inter- 
ference, unless there are other symptoms indicating de- 
ranged health ; and, second, the establishment of this 
flow is an important effort of the body, requiring all the 
nervous energy that can be spared from absolutely essen- 



44 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE FEMALE. 

tial vital processes, and for this reason, as little as pos- 
sible should be required of the girl's mind and muscles, 
till the new function is thoroughly well established, and 
proceeding regularly and painlessly. 

When a girl nears her " teens," or comes to about 
the age at which her mother began to menstruate, she 
should be watched with extra care, and any disturbance 
of health should be met by prompt measures. If nat- 
ure be engaged in establishing menstruation, more or 
less indefinite pain, languor, loss of appetite, and dis- 
inclination for society and regular employments are to 
be expected, and should be the signal for laying aside 
studies, work, and every taxing employment. Let the 
dictates and even the caprices of appetite have much 
weight in the selection of food, so long as no attempt to 
eat positively indigestible articles is made. If break- 
fast be not wanted, do not urge it — the patient has 
other work on hand in the body more important for 
the present than the digestion of food, and there is no 
danger of starvation before the appearance of the sense 
of hunger. But hold in check the ambition of the girl 
herself, or of her teachers, which would ignore the de- 
mands of the body for the sake of accomplishing a cer- 
tain amount of study or other work in a certain time. 

During the actual continuance of the first period the 
girl ought to lie down, and if there be any pain or dis- 
turbance of general health at subsequent periods, the 
same rule should be observed till the flow is well estab- 
lished. The relationship of this function to the whole 
mental, moral, and physical life of the woman is so very 
important that too much care can hardly be bestowed 



PUBERTY. 45 

upon the girl during its establishment. All the little 
ailments and whims which at another time might better 
be repressed and ignored, should now be considered in 
their possible relation to derangements which, if al- 
lowed to become seated at this crisis, may result in per- 
manent ill-health and disability. It is far better to 
allow nature even a year or two of entire freedom from 
ordinary demands at this time, that she may perfect the 
body and its functions on the sound basis of health, 
than it is to crowd studies, piano-practice, and other tax- 
ing employments at the cost of a life of invalidism. 
Usually between the periods the girl will feel as well as 
usual, and it will be sufficient to keep her at rest on the 
back while the flow actually continues. But if her ill- 
feelings demand attention at other times they should 
not be neglected. 

If the first menses do not appear at the time 
they are expected, but other symptoms of general dis- 
turbance of health are present, the case demands inves- 
tigation. Possibly the membrane that closes in the 
vagina in many (not all) women is without* an opening 
for the escape of the blood. This is a condition that 
can only be discovered by local examination, and the 
person who should thus examine is, of course, the 
mother. A " maidenhead " without an opening is not 
difficult of recognition, and the cure for it is a surgical 
operation. Possibly the obstruction may be more seri- 
ous and deeper, or there may be, in very rare cases, no 
vagina at all. Such things demand a surgeon's atten- 
tion, and if present where menstruation is attempted by 
the womb, will occasion heaviness, fulness, and swell- 



46 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE FEMALE. 

ing in the lower part of the abdomen, backache, nausea, 
swelling and tenderness of the breasts, constipation, and 
other symptoms requiring careful professional treat- 
ment. 

When backache, " bearing-down " pains, headache, 
and lassitude indicate that nature is endeavoring to 
bring about the monthly flow, but nothing is seen of 
such flow, and no obstruction can be discovered, a warm 
foot-bath may be tried as a stimulant to the function. 
Let the water be at 110° F. — measured by the ther- 
mometer, and not guessed at — deep enough to come up 
well on the ankles, let it contain two teaspoonfuls of 
ground mustard, and let the patient sit quietly with her 
feet in the bath for full thirty minutes. The bath and 
lower part of the body should be covered by a sheet or 
blanket to keep in the heat and guard against draughts. 
Such a bath may be advised for a similar purpose at 
any time of life ; but cold bathing of any kind should 
always be entirely omitted during menstruation, no mat- 
ter how well and strong the patient may think herself. 
Baths, of whatever character, should never be taken 
within less than two and a half hours after a meal, and 
a good time for a warm foot-bath, such as just de- 
scribed, is immediately before retiring. 

!f a medicine be required for delayed or sup- 
pressed menstrual flow, either at its first establishment 
or later in life, Sil. or Ptds. will be most likely to be in- 
dicated. Sil. should be given in tablespoonful doses, 
morning and night, using a solution of twelve globules 
in half a glass of water, when the patient complains of 
a hot head, with pain and dizziness, backache, sweating 



DELAYED MENSES. 47 

feet, has a tendency to boils, and itching or soreness 
about the sexual organs. Pals, should be given in 
similar doses, four times a day, to a patient who com- 
plains of chilliness, want of appetite, especial aversion 
to fat foods, pains that are constantly changing both 
locality and character, and who is better in the open air 
although, perhaps, not anxious to get out of doors. 
This medicine is often of service where the failure of 
the menses to appear can be traced to wetting the feet 
or to cold. Sometimes failure of the menses to appear 
in those who are fat and flabby, who sweat much about 
the head, have cold feet, are pale and lack vitality, may 
be corrected by giving Calc. carl), dissolved in water, a 
tablespoonf ul four times daily. 

The menses are intended to relieve the womb of 
a quantity of blood sent to that organ each time an egg 
is matured and cast off. This blood is put to other uses 
in case the egg is fecundated, as it is called, that is, put 
into condition to become a new human being ; otherwise 
it flows off, and at times it does not escape by the usual 
channel, but, instead, leaves the system through the 
nose, lungs, or some other outlet, giving rise to a dis- 
order known as vicarious menstruation* The 
patient feels as if the menses were about to appear, but 
they do not flow, or flow very scantily, while at the 
same time nose-bleed, or vomiting or spitting of blood 
does occur. Such losses of blood do not always indicate 
that the organ through which the blood flows is dis- 
eased, although it does indicate a tendency that way by 
reason of weakness of that organ, and it makes care for 
the health and rest during the menses imperative. Bry. 



48 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE FEMALE. 

is the best medicine in such a condition, and should be 
given dissolved in water, in doses of a teaspoonful 
every hour or two hours while the periods lasts, and 
in tablespoonful doses twice daily during the interval 
between the periods. If this medicine be not sufficient 
to effect a cure, the case may easily be of such gravity 
as to require professional treatment. 

Menstruation in health should be painless as 
well as regular. When it is otherwise we have the dis- 
order known as dysmenorrhea, meaning painful 
or difficult menstruation. This condition may depend 
upon several causes, and manifests itself by many symp- 
toms. Sometimes deformities, displacements, or ob- 
structions in the womb itself are the cause, sometimes 
nervous or other diseases, sometimes it is due to cold or 
to imprudence or exhaustion. The pain may be a colic, 
a backache, headache, a " bearing-down," or something 
else, local or general, may be accompanied by the dis- 
charge of a membrane from the womb, or by scanty, 
profuse, intermittent, or variable flow. Such a cata- 
logue of causes and effects makes it evident enough that 
a full plan of treatment for difficult menstruation can 
have no place in a work like the present ; still some 
suggestions can be made. 

The first thing to advise when there is pain 
with the menses is lying down so long as it continues. 
Lie on side, face, or back, as is most agreeable, but hori- 
zontal, and with the head rather low. The next thing 
to be thought of, especially if there be backache, is the 
hot foment — as hot as can be borne. 

In preparing foments it is absolutely essential 



FOMENTATION. 49 

that a good thermometer be used, and one that will reg- 
ister as high as the boiling-point of water. First, place 
a rubber sheet or waterproof over the bed to protect it. 
Then have at hand a piece of flannel or old blanket, 
large enough to make a pretty solid roll eighteen inches 
long and three to four inches in diameter when rolled 
up. The patient must be entirely undressed. Water 
of exactly 115° F. should be brought to the bedside — 
not 115° F. by guess, but by the thermometer. The 
flannel is to be clipped into this water, wrung out, not 
too dry but so it will not drip, rolled up, and while the 
patient sits up in bed it is to be applied along the length 
of the backbone. This is to be done as quickly as pos- 
sible, and the patient is then to lie back upon the flan- 
nel the nurse holding it in position while she does so, 
and then covering her with a sheet and blanket. The 
patient should lie quietly for ten minutes, and then the 
pail should be again brought, but this time containing 
water of 120° F., again exactly measured by the ther- 
mometer. Into this the cloth should be dipped, wrung 
out, and applied for another period of ten minutes pre- 
cisely as before. After this interval the cloth should 
be wrung out for the third time ; but now from water of 
exactly 125° F. Then it should be reapplied for an- 
other period of ten minutes, making the whole treat- 
ment last for half an hour. When this last period is 
over, water of 100° F. should be brought, and with this 
the back should be sponged off quickly, dried, and the 
patient allowed to lie quietly or to get up if she be well 
enough. 

A foment should be given, as just described, twice 
4 



50 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE FEMALE. 

a day, either before breakfast and supper or before the 
midday meal and bedtime, never sooner than two hours 
and a half after a meal. The cloths may feel pretty hot 
at first contact, but the skin soon becomes accustomed to 
them, and the patient finds the moist heat very sooth- 
ing — a statement that will not hold true of dry heat, as 
applied by hot water bottles, sand-bags, and the like. 

If the foments be well borne at the temperatures 
given, the next day each cloth may be made five degrees 
hotter, making the first 120° F., the second 125° F., and 
the third 130° F., and the next day they may be raised 
again to 125°, 130°, and 135° F., respectively, the" wash 
off " remaining at 100°. Hotter than this it is not often 
necessary to go for a young person, although still greater 
heat given in this way would not in the least scald or 
burn the skin, and the hotter the cloths can be borne the 
more serviceable they are in relieving pain. It is some- 
times a troublesome matter for the nurse to wring out 
these very hot cloths. It may be done, however, by 
using a clothes-wringer, or by wrapping the wet cloth in 
a dry towel, or even by simply dipping the hands in cold 
water just before grasping the hot cloth. 

For a medicine, the mother tincture of Vibum. 
ojp. is most generally useful, especially if there be cramps 
and colic-like pains through the bowels. It must be 
taken in doses of ten drops, mixed with about a table- 
spoonful of hot water, and this dose is to be repeated 
every two hours until the patient is relieved. If im- 
provement follow the administration of this drug in this 
manner, it would be advisable to continue its use for the 
whole interval before the next period, but in smaller 



DYSMENORRHEA. 51 

doses. Take five drops of the tincture morning and 
evening, mixing the dose with a tablespoonful of hot 
water. Another useful medicine is Gels., if there be 
headache, dizziness, blurred vision, drooping eyelids, 
large quantities of urine, spasmodic pains, and also where 
a membrane is discharged from the womb. The dose 
will be five drops of the mother tincture in a tablespoon- 
ful of hot water, repeated once every two hours. This 
drug may also be continued till the next period if it 
prove helpful, but in the interval use only two drops to 
the tablespoonful of hot water, a dose morning and even- 
ing. Cocculus is often a useful remedy where the pains 
are like colic, worse by every touch and motion, and by 
cold, with a fitful flow of the menses. The patient is 
usually very nervous. Dissolve twelve globules of the 
medicine in half a glass of water, and give a tablespoon- 
ful every two hours. The same dose may be continued 
morning and evening till the next period. If difficult 
menstruation be associated with obstruction or pain in 
the bowels, a full injection of warm water containing a 
little castile soap is to be advised. 

Very profuse or long-lasting menstrua- 
tion, or a similar flow of blood from the womb between 
the menstrual periods, will demand treatment, as the 
loss of the vital fluid may be so great as even to threaten 
life itself. Abnormal growths in the womb, conges- 
tions of that organ induced, perhaps, by masturbation, 
or by imprudences of various sorts, bad conditions of the 
blood itself or of the blood-vessels, are among the causes 
of such bleeding, and several of these will demand pro- 
fessional treatment for their cure. 



52 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE FEMALE. 

Best on the back must be the main reliance in domes- 
tic treatment. If there be pain in the back give fo- 
ments as described above. If enough blood have been 
lost to really weaken the patient and induce paleness of 
the face and f aintness, China is the medicine. Dissolve 
twelve globules in half a glass of water, and give a table- 
spoonful every hour or two hours as needed. Of course, 
in this condition a physician will have been called. If 
the blood lost be bright red, and the patient complain of 
nausea, Ipec. should be given as directed for China. If 
the periods be regularly too profuse and long-lasting, 
especially if they begin a little too early, and the patient 
be pale, fat, flabby, rather dull, and subject to cold feet, 
use Calc. carb. between the periods for some months, 
dissolving twelve globules in half a glass of water, and 
giving a tablespoonful dose, morning and night. 

The serious and sudden gushes of blood 
from the womb known as flooding, to which women are 
liable during pregnancy, abortion, or miscarriage, after 
labor, and at the change of life, require the attendance 
of a physician as soon as that can be obtained, and in 
the meantime such prompt measures as those at hand 
can apply. Lay the patient down flat in the nearest 
convenient place — on the floor is as good a place as any 
— and slightly elevate the hips by a pillow, cushion, or 
shawl rolled up. Apply a napkin, towel, sponge or any- 
thing soft to stop the flow of blood, and if possible 
without disturbing the patient too much, get the cloth- 
ing off sufficiently to apply ice to the backbone. This 
can best be done by using small pieces of ice inclosed 
in a rubber ice-bag, but any other plan will answer. 



METKORRHAGIA. 53 

Neither cold water nor snow will substitute the ice sat- 
isfactorily, and the application should be to the lower 
part of the spine. Mix twelve globules of Sdbina in 
half a glass of water, and give teaspoonf ul doses every 
ten or fifteen minutes, if necessary, till the bleeding ceases 
or the doctor arrives. Be very careful about disturbing 
the patient, even for the sake of undressing or getting 
her to bed. If she must be moved let it be in the hori- 
zontal position, unless several hours have passed without 
bleeding. Great care must be taken for days after such 
an accident, lest a strain, a jar, an exertion, or some ex- 
citement result in renewed flooding. 

At the " Change of Life," as at puberty, men- 
strual irregularities are to be expected, and the impor- 
tant change that Nature is establishing in the habits of 
the system should be facilitated by especial moderation 
in the demands made upon body and mind. Many 
serious diseases are apt to make their attack at about this 
time, and perhaps the more easily because of the pre- 
vailing disposition among women to charge to the 
" change of life," all the symptoms of ill-health or phy- 
sical discomfort that they may experience perhaps dur- 
ing a whole decade. Many symptoms may be due to 
that cause, but it is nevertheless a wiser plan to seek 
professional advice before assuming such to be the case. 
And good judgment must be exercised, too, in treating 
many of the derangements of this epoch, for they may 
be Nature's efforts to equalize a circulation deprived of 
the accustomed relief afforded by menstruation. Piles, 
especially bleeding piles, are frequently to be looked 
upon as a relief to the over-active blood-making organs, 



54 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE FEMALE. 

and as a complaint to be removed cautiously and gradu- 
ally. Quick cures of piles are always to be considered 
ill-advised and dangerous unless the causes upon which 
they depend can first be put quite out of the way. 

Among the more common disturbances of the circu- 
lation at the " change of life " are vertigo, and flushes 
of heat. 

Vertigo may arise from either too much or too lit- 
tle blood in the head, the latter condition being fre- 
quently occasioned by the losses of flooding. The best 
medicine for a vertigo so produced is China, twelve 
globules to half a glass of water, a tablespoonful of 
which should be taken every one, two, or four hours as 
needed. Plenty of easily digested nourishing food 
should be taken by a patient suffering from this kind of 
vertigo, milk in some form, or some of the prepared 
foods made from beef, and sold at the drug-shops, being 
best adapted to the needs of the system. 

When the vertigo depends upon too much blood in 
the head, and is accompanied by flushed face, hot head, 
dulness of sight, and weight, and fulness at the upper 
part of the neck, the best treatment is a hot foot-bath, 
and a full injection into the bowels. Let the water for 
the foot-bath be at 110° F., deep enough to come up 
well on the ankles, and let it contain two teaspoonfuls 
of ground mustard. The bath should last for thirty 
minutes, and the feet and tub should be covered. 

For the injection, use a quart of warm water, contain- 
ing a little soap. The best medicine will be the mother 
tincture of Gels., of which five drops should be taken 
at a dose, mixed with a tablespoonful of hot water, and 



THE CLIMAX. 55 

repeated once in three hours, if necessary. Cloths wet 
in cold water, applied to the head, and changed as often 
as they become warm, will also be of service. 

Flushes of Heat are a very common form of an- 
noj^ance at this period, and are best met by either Lach., 
or Sang., the former where the trouble is worse after 
sleeping, affects the left side the more, and the patient's 
skin is very sensitive ; the latter where there is headache, 
nausea, chilliness, and cough. Of the selected medi- 
cine, dissolve twelve globules in half a glass of water, 
and take a tablespoonful four times daily. 

A few other disorders of the " change of life " are 
mentioned in the author's " Modern Domestic Medicine," 
but most of the troubles of this period should receive 
professional attention. 

Leucorrhcea or the "Whites" is an ex- 
tremely common disease among women, manifesting 
itself at all ages, in several varieties and many degrees, 
and resulting from a long list of causes. It consists of 
an abnormally profuse discharge of a fluid, colorless, 
white, yellowish or greenish, from the private parts, 
the fluid being variable in consistency, quantity and odor, 
and the disease resembling in most points a common 
" cold in the head." The character of the discharge in- 
dicates the particular glands from which it comes, and 
it is usually an excessive flow of the natural fluids de- 
signed to moisten and lubricate the parts affected. ISTer- 
vous weakness or exhaustion, a thin condition of the 
blood, an increased flow of blood to the sexual organs, 
cold, mechanical or other local irritation, or specific 
poisons may cause the trouble in some of its phases. 



56 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE FEMALE. 

The first may come from confinement at studies, especi- 
ally instrumental music, without sufficient rest, air, and 
exercise ; an increased flow of blood to the parts is nat- 
ural at the monthly periods, and during pregnancy, and 
a slight leueorrhcea at such times can hardly be thought 
a disease ; cold locally applied is frequently a cause of 
the trouble in little girls, who seem to have a remark- 
able fondness for sitting on such articles as stone door- 
steps ; or, it may result from wetting the feet, or in any 
of the ways that bring about colds of the head or chest ; 
mechanical and local irritations are induced by mastur- 
bation, sexual excesses, pessaries, and in little girls by 
worms, which crawl forward from the back passage, 
also by displacements or injuries to the womb itself ; 
and specific poisons are found in the diseases of the pri- 
vates of men, which a husband may convey to his wife. 
The discharge undoubtedly cleans the body, at times, of 
worn out material, which finds an obstacle to its escape 
through other channels. 

in treating the Whites, it will be first necessary 
to remove the cause of the trouble, and this will often 
require a physician's or surgeon's services. But a plan 
that will almost invariably be useful, whether as a cure 
or as a temporary relief, is that of washing out the 
vagina with injections of hot water. Such a treatment, 
however, or any other local measures, should never be 
practised during the flowing of the menses ; only in the 
intervals. 

To give a proper injection, a large fountain syringe 
will be necessary, and its reservoir should be hung as 
high as the tube will allow. About a gallon of water 



LEUCORRHOEA. 57 

must be used, and this should be at exactly 110° F., 
measured by a good thermometer. A tablespoonf ul of 
common salt added to the water will be advantageous, 
and the injection should be taken at such a time as will 
admit of its being followed by at least an hour of rest, 
lying down. Take the injection about three hours after 
breakfast and again at bedtime, or if a morning douche 
cannot be followed by the hour of rest, take but one in- 
jection daily. Better no treatment than the treatment 
without the subsequent rest. 

The injection should be taken sitting upon a rub- 
ber sheet, arranged to collect the water as it runs away 
and conduct it into a receptacle. The water after being 
made exactly 110° F., should be put into the receiver of 
the syringe (which will have to be refilled two or three 
times during the treatment), the receiver is then to be 
hung up on a nail, bedpost, chandelier, or anything 
high enough to give it all the " head " or pressure of 
water that the length of the tube will allow. The tube 
or nozzle — which should have been well anointed with 
vaseline or sweet oil — is then to be passed into the va- 
gina as deeply as it will go easily, the water is to be al- 
lowed to flow, and the hand is to be placed over that 
organ so as close its lips somewhat, obstructing the out- 
flow of the water and obliging it to distend the folds of 
lining membrane and come in contact with every part 
of its surface. The water should flow rather slowly and 
about a gallon should be used at each treatment. 

At the end of a week of such treatment the temper- 
ature of the water should be reduced five degrees, to 
105° F., and each subsequent week a further reduction of 



58 SEXUAL HEALTH OF THE FEMALE. 

five degrees should be made till water of 85° F. is used. 
At this point the temperature should remain — harm 
may be done by going lower — and the injections may 
be continued indefinitely. In fact any woman who be- 
comes accustomed to these internal baths will be more 
than likely to keep them up at short intervals, merely 
for the sense of cleanliness and comfort they occasion, 
but, as just remarked, care must be taken not to use 
water too cold — 85° F. is cold enough, as a general 
rule. 

Among many medicines for the whites, the 
best for domestic use will be Cede. carb. or Puis., the 
former where the patient is pale, fat, flabby, indolent, 
has cold feet and a tendency to perspire about the head 
and neck; the latter for patients who have easily dis- 
ordered stomachs, and vague pains, changing character 
and location easily, who are apt to grow chilly on the 
slightest provocation and always feel better in the open 
air. Twelve globules of the selected medicine should 
be dissolved in half a glass of water, of which a table- 
spoonful should be taken four times a day. 

For the troublesome itching of the pri- 
vates, which is sometimes so annoying as almost to 
make life a burden, thorough bathing of the parts in 
warm water is to be advised as a preliminary measure 
whatever further treatment may be required. Among 
external applications, the best are Borax, in powder or 
in solution, Nitrate of Silver, in solution, ten grains to 
the ounce of water, and Balsam of Peru, which last 
must be applied with caution, as it is often very distress- 
ing and irritating to the delicate membranes at this 



PRURITUS. 59 

point. Internally, a medicine is often of service, and 
the best selection usually is Sulph. y which should be taken 
twice daily, at each dose using a tablespoonf ul of a solu- 
tion of twelve globules of the medicine in half a glass 
of water. This trouble often offers a perplexing prob- 
lem to the physician, who should be consulted if the 
above measures are unsuccessful. 

Impediments to marriage on the part of the 
woman, consist in the absence of the sexual organs, an 
unyielding maidenhead, and certain diseases which ren- 
der the sexual act unendurable or hopelessly unfruitful. 
As a rule, they cannot be recognized by an unprofes- 
sional person ; the majority are curable, and when they 
are incurable they are a ground for annulling a marriage 
ceremony, if it can be proven that they existed at the 
time it was performed, and the dissolution of the mar- 
riage is sought by the injured party. A physician who 
is also a surgeon should always be consulted with regard 
to them. 



CHAPTER III. 



MARRIAGE. 



Why women marry, is a question that has long 
puzzled the philosophers, and becomes more and more 
difficult to answer as one by one the avenues of profes- 
sional and business life open to them. It is impossible 
to believe that any considerable portion of them do so 
because only through marriage can they attain to that 
most exalted office open to humanity — motherhood — 
and perhaps we cannot do better than content ourselves 
with the answer that it is because marriage is an insti- 
tution established by the Creator Himself, and rooted 
into the very basis and fibre of human nature, and be- 
cause in the case of each individual married woman, 
some man asked her. 

But both portions of that answer plead, in their very 
statement, for more sound and complete instruction for 
the young, and especially for girls, on ail subjects con- 
nected with this institution. Unfortunate, unhappy, 
unworthy marriages are matters of almost every-day oc- 
currence ; immature young girls are asked by boys and 
men, of whose real character they know, and can know 
almost nothing, to enter a state of which, in its real sig- 
nificance and relations, they are absolutely ignorant be- 
yond, perhaps, the facts that the majority of grown-up 
folk are, or have been married, and that only such, for 



EARLY PREPARATION FOR MARRIAGE. 61 

some mysterious reason, are burdened with the nuisance 
of children. We shall not be rid of matrimonial blun- 
ders ; of marrying for money, for a home, for conveni- 
ence ; of ruined health ; of blighted happiness ; of worth- 
less, incompetent mothers, and frivolous, unprincipled 
children ; or of our disgraceful divorce record, until we 
begin to give our daughters sound ideas of the meaning 
and importance of marriage, and wise and practical guid- 
ance in forming their opinions of boys and men ; and to 
do this successfully, experience shows that we must be- 
gin early, long before school-days are over. 

The best school for the girl, as for the boy, is 
the mixed school, and until the highest grades are 
reached, as a rule, it is better to avoid both the board- 
ing, and the city public school. As the home itself is 
by far the best place in which to train and develop the 
character of the young, so the home and family model 
— male and female, man and woman, boy and girl, shar- 
ing together the tasks, the experiences, the joys, the 
troubles, that go to make up life — is the best one to 
adopt a3 far as it can be made to apply to those means 
of education which cannot be brought under the domes- 
tic roof. The monastic system is a failure, at least, it 
has no relation to our modern conception of social and 
family life. To prevent the evils of ill-assorted mar- 
riages, educate young people, and especially girls, on 
this very subject. And the only way to teach a girl 
what a boy or man is, or should be, is to put her in con- 
tact with him. Let her study the same books in the 
same classes, meet him at the same games, and discuss 
the same problems and every-day affairs with him, and 



62 MARRIAGE. 

thus she will best learn how to judge him when he asks 
her to risk life's voyage with him, and at the same time 
how best to make true men out of her own boys in the 
future. 

And teach her plain iy and truly what marriage 
is and what it signifies. Root out that false idea that 
it is founded upon lov r e, while at the same time you 
teach that its relations are so intimate and binding that 
there is no possible safety for those entering its bonds 
unless they are absolutely certain that there is between 
them that devoted, pure, self-sacrificing love which the 
Master's command makes it the duty of each of His 
creatures and disciples to feel for all his fellows. And 
on the other hand save her from the conception of mar- 
riage that has given polygamous Mormonism its power, 
namely, that its sole object is the preservation of the 
species, while at the same time you teach that no one has 
a right to enter this holy estate unless willing to accept 
all the duties and responsibilities, including parenthood, 
which the all- wise Father has seen fit to associate with 
this institution. 

The object of marriage is the development of 
character ; it is founded not upon love but upon sexual 
instincts, which, though given by the Creator, honorable 
in all, and beautiful in their proper uses and relations, 
are yet unworthy the sacred name of Love. Teach your 
daughter that these instincts, of which she probably 
knows comparatively little in her own body before mar- 
riage, are the impelling motive in the man who seeks 
her hand and heart. Teach her that without these 
sexual desires no man would ever sacrifice his personal 



TRUE OBJECT OF MARRIAGE. 63 

liberty, or see the many charms her lover now discovers 
in her person or in the thought of being ever near her, 
no matter how many and how different causes combine 
with this one to make her attractive to him ; and you 
have given her more profit than she could find in a hun- 
dred romantic novels. Let her know that her failure 
as a wife, whatever the cause, to meet and fall in with 
the instincts in her husband upon which marriage is 
founded, will almost certainly alienate from her his affec- 
tions sooner or later, no matter how faithful he may seem 
or how congenial otherwise she may be ; and you have 
given her a secret which will do more to secure for her 
happiness in the married state than all the fashion 
plates and cookery recipes in existence. Health and 
happiness are not prizes drawn in a lottery ; they are the 
result and evidence of right living. Sexual organs and 
instincts are heaven-implanted, and the woman who 
marries has not merely a privilege regarding them, it 
is her duty to her husband, her children and herself, 
to heartily enjoy with her husband sexual intercourse, 
and to keep herself in such condition that she may en- 
joy it. 

And this involves knowledge of the signifi- 
cance of marriage before its consummation. The day for 
this event should be selected so as to be as remote as 
possible from the monthly flow, for, as a general rule 
through life, a woman should be excused from sexual 
intercourse during her periods, and her first experiences 
of that act should interfere as little as possible with 
them. The only exception to the rule just given is that 
in case a woman seems barrren, and no other time of 



64 MAEEIAGE. 

meeting her husband results in conception, a union dur- 
ing her period may be tried as an experiment that some- 
times succeeds if tried with sufficient caution and gen- 
tleness. And gentleness should always characterize the 
performance of this act. Usually at the beginning it is 
necessary that the membrane which closes in the vagina 
to a greater or less extent, be broken, and this is com- 
monly more or less painful to the woman, besides being 
attended with some loss of blood. Any violence on the 
part of the husband in effecting this initial connection 
is far worse than unnecessary — it is brutal, and quite 
likely to result in permanent injury to the wife, possi- 
bly making all future sexual intercourse painful instead 
of pleasurable to her. Once the membrane is fairly 
broken and the act completed the woman ought to be 
allowed an interval of several days before repeating in- 
tercourse, to allow the healing of the wounded parts 
in their new conditions ; then the act may be safely 
and pleasantly performed with due moderation in the 
future, and without so much likelihood of evil conse- 
quences. 

This membrane which closes the vagina is called 
the hymen, and its object is undoubtedly to serve as an 
evidence of virginity. But it should never be forgot- 
ten that it is far from being a positive or infallible 
evidence. It is even possible for it to persist after 
marriage, and cases have been known in which this 
membrane has been found impeding the progress of an 
infant on its way into the world. Such a state of things 
is, however, extremely rare, while the absence of the 
membrane in a young and innocent virgin is by no 



CONSUMMATION OF MARRIAGE. 65 

means uncommon. A certain class of midwives and 
wet-nurses frequently make it a point to break up this 
membrane in new-born girls, and necessary surgical 
interferences and occasional accidents destroy the hy- 
men in others. Then, too, the hymen is a variously- 
shaped organ and is sometimes so small as scarcely to 
be noticed by an unprofessional person. Undoubtedly 
it is broken in some cases by attempts at masturba- 
tion, and occasionally girls are born without this mem- 
brane. All these things make it highly unjust to en- 
tertain the slightest suspicion of a woman's virtue solely 
because at her marriage the hymen is not present. 

After its rupture the membrane curls up at the sides 
of the vagina and shrivels away, but if during this pro- 
cess it is irritated and inflamed by repeated acts of sex- 
ual indulgence it is apt to become a permanent source 
of pain of a neuralgic character, lasting often until the 
birth of a child so alters the arrangement of parts as to 
cure the difficulty. 

With regard to the repetition of the sexual 
act, what was said on a preceding page must apply here. 
When anything more than a temporary feeling of lassi- 
tude succeeds it, indulgence is probably excessive. A 
woman ordinarily can endure more indulgence than can 
a man, but she ought to be entirely excused during her 
period, and even for a day or so after it, and also daring 
any illness, since a woman can hardly be ill without ex- 
periencing some untoward effects in the sexual region 
of her body. And again after a " confinement," a wo- 
man ought to excuse herself from the approaches of 
her husband for from three to six months, that the 
5 



66 MARRIAGE. 

greatly distended parts may have ample time and rest 
to resume the normal conditions. 

The sexual act is to be looked upon both as a 
pleasure and a duty. A legitimate and exquisite pleas- 
ure if properly performed ; whenever it becomes any- 
thing else, errors or disease are to be suspected. Con- 
sidered as a duty toward one's husband, it cannot be 
properly fulfilled except when it is a pleasure to both 
parties. Clothing of any kind is an obstacle to proper 
sexual intercourse, and the act is never what it should 
be unless it is an expression of perfect confidence and 
mutual affection, as well as an accompaniment of endear- 
ing caresses otherwise expressed. Evidence is sadly, 
shamefully abundant in the practice of every physician, 
that a wife cannot count on her husband's faithfulness 
unless she is both able and willing to satisfy the crav- 
ing which with him is vastly the most important incen- 
tive to marry. This is exactly one of the facts concern- 
ing which the ignorance of young women is so general 
and so lamentable. Having been so persistently and 
industriously taught that everything connected with the 
sexual act, or even the sexual organs, is a shame and a 
disgrace, they learn after marriage rather slowly and re- 
luctantly what the true estimation, importance, and 
relations of these organs and acts really are. Anything 
bordering upon animalism or sensuality, in either man 
or woman, is, of course, shameful and disgraceful, and 
too much care can hardly be expended in guarding 
against it. But that is a poor cure which degrades 
natural instincts till it can be thought that the Creator 



SEXUAL RELATIONS. 67 

lias made a mistake or dishonored his creatures by so 
endowing them. Give them their proper place — the 
lowest among the gifts and endowments of the body, 
perhaps — never cultivate them, but rather cultivate 
body, mind, and spirit at their expense and with the 
object of keeping them within bounds ; but recognize 
them as a legitimate and necessary element in life, a 
source of real pleasure if exercised in accordance with 
the laws of their Maker, and, at least in the man, as im- 
periously demanding gratification, because upon their 
fulfilling their function the life of the race depends. 

Sexual health in the marriage relation requires 
moderation and consideration in undertaking its duties. 
The wretched fashion of taking a bridal journey imme- 
diately after the ceremony should be condemned from 
every point of view. The bride is usually exhausted 
with her preparations for the event and the excitement 
of anticipation, and is in no condition for either her 
new physical experience or her journey. To put both 
on her at once is a serious mistake, and one that results 
in much harm to health. The first approach should be 
accomplished at a time of as much physical and mental 
quiet as possible. Three or four days should elapse be- 
fore a repetition of the act, to allow the parts of the 
woman's body to recover from the changes and injuries 
which the first connection usually involves. 

Persons who have passed the prime of life should in- 
dulge sexual desires with less and less frequency as they 
find power and inclination to do so dying out ; and as 
it is important that these matters should be mutual in 
all respects, it is well worth while to consider, in con- 



68 MARRIAGE. 

tracting a marriage, that sexual life ceases in woman at 
an earlier age than in man, and that, therefore, a man 
should select a life partner some years younger than 
himself. 

Just when sexual powers will begin to decrease in 
any individual is, of course, a matter that cannot be 
accurately foretold. It will depend on many considera- 
tions of general health and physical activity, and espe- 
cially upon the moderation of indulgence in early life. 
Therefore it is impossible to say just how many years 
should separate the ages of husband and wife. Life is 
not very accurately measured in years at any rate ; but 
probably from three to fifteen years would be the limits 
within which the differences in ages should range, the 
man, of course, being the elder. With regard to the 
proper age at marriage of each contracting party, it 
may be said that physical maturity should have been 
attained in order that a sound and well developed body 
may be handed down to offspring ; but, that secured, 
the younger the marriage takes place the better will the 
couple succeed in blending their two lives into one, by 
mutual concessions to the ruts and habits of each other. 
For the man the best years are from twenty-four to 
thirty-six, for a woman, from twenty to thirty. 

A more significant consideration than age, 
for those contemplating marriage, is temperament, and 
it is, perhaps, at once the most neglected and, in a medi- 
cal sense, the most important item bearing upon this in- 
stitution. The objections to the marriage of cousins 
are not due to the mere fact of blood-relationship be- 
tween the parties, but to the almost certain conse- 



CONSANGUINITY. 69 

quences of that consanguinity, namely, similar temper- 
ament and a tendency toward similar diseases, which 
are almost certain to show themselves with fatal effect 
in the offspring of such marriages. But persons who 
appreciate the sin of marrying cousins, and who would 
on no account risk parenthood if they knew themselves 
to be afflicted with diseases which would probably occa- 
sion the early death of their children, will yet ally 
themselves with those of identical temperament, in ig- 
norance of the fact that in so doing they are forming a 
union more objectionable than the marriage of cousins, 
objectionable for precisely the reasons that should keep 
blood relatives apart, and more likely to result in short- 
lived offspring than is the existence of transmissible 
disease in a parent. 

Identical temperaments are childless. Per- 
sons whose temperaments are nearly alike, if married, 
are likely to beget children who, if born alive, will die 
young, or manifest physical or mental weakness through 
life. Consumption, meningitis, rickets, scrofula, and the 
like, are carrying off every year thousands and thousands 
of young persons, and making thousands more weakly 
and burdensome to themselves, their friends, and the 
world ; and for the cause of this state of things we must 
look to the ill-considered and unwise, if not criminal 
marriages. Yet the world goes on refusing to allow 
young persons to learn the true significance of marriage, 
and acquiescing in the foolish idea that because a young 
man and maiden love each other, or fancy that they do, 
there is reason enough for their union. 

As a rule, cousins and second cousins should not 



70 MAEEIAGE. 

marry. Persons of similar temperament should never 
marry, and the more pronounced the lymphatic tem- 
perament is in any young person, the more careful he 
or she should be to choose as a life partner one in whom 
no trace of its predominance can be found. A person 
in whom the mental or nervous temperament is marked 
should be careful to choose predominantly vital charac- 
teristics in a conjugal companion, and, of course, every 
effort should be made in cases where any diseased ten- 
dency is suspected, to be sure that nothing at all similar 
exists in the person or the family of the one he or she 
intends to wed. 

The bedchamber should be a large, airy, and 
sunny room, well ventilated and containing about twelve 
hundred cubic feet of space for each individual. The 
custom in America is for a married couple to occupy the 
same bed, but on many accounts the European custom 
of separate beds is better, especially for young persons, 
who can but find difficulty in keeping the gratification 
of desire within due bounds of moderation if opportun- 
ity for indulgence be so convenient, and in those cases 
where either husband or wife is seriously ill or liable to 
be disturbed during the night. Separate rooms are 
not necessary, but a single bed for each individual has 
much to recommend it. 

With regard to the avoidance and limitation 
of offspring there is but one sure, safe, and proper plan 
for the healthy, and that is to remain single, or, being 
married, to live as if single. Any interference with the 
course of Nature is a fraud that she will be sure to pun- 
ish, and any attempt to rid the healthy body of the 



* 



OFFSPRING. 71 

fruits of conception otherwise than by natural labor, is 
certainly a cowardly crime, if it be not actual murder. 
No such attempts can be made without risking the life 
or health of the woman, and nothing can ever excuse 
them except the moral certainty that without them her 
life will be sacrificed. 

Much has been written about the predetermina- 
tion of the sex of the offspring, but no theory is as yet 
generally accepted. The difficulty of getting at a suf- 
ficient number of undoubted facts regarding conception 
in the human family effectually prevents the formulation 
of any law by which parents may infallibly decide in 
advance whether they w T ill produce boys or girls. The 
probabilities, however, are, that intercourse soon after 
menstruation or just before it, if fruitful, will result in 
female offspring ; while the conceptions occasioned in 
the latter part of the interval between the menses will 
result in male children. The relative age, health, de- 
velopment, and, perhaps, desires of the parents may in- 
fluence the matter, however, and some women seem 
incapable of conception at all during a variable time in 
each interval between their periods, and just before the 
return of the flow. 

In conclusion, the author would quote St. Paul, 
(seventh chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians), as 
good authority for his advice to those men and women 
who have a purpose and an object in living, who can 
rule their own bodies and spirits, and who wish to at- 
tain to the highest development and usefulness of which 
human nature is capable, not to marry. The life of 
chaste celibacy, chaste in thought, word, and deed, de- 



72 MARRIAGE. 

voted to some high purpose and unselfishly spent for 
the advantage of mankind — this is undoubtedly the 
highest ideal and gives best promise of health, happi- 
ness, and usefulness. For woman, it is true, the high- 
est office is motherhood, but not all are capable of filling 
that office worthily, and not all desire it. Any man or 
woman is living best when he is filling the highest office 
for which he or she is adapted, and many a woman as 
well as man will find that sphere outside of marriage. 

But for the majority, now as ever, the married state 
is the natural and proper one, honorable in all, and best 
adapted for the development of individual character and . 
the welfare of society. Health, happiness, and useful- 
ness await those who enter this state from pure motives, 
accept its responsibilities, live up to its duties, and share 
its joys in moderation, and with due regard to that pro- 
portionate exercise of all the bodily, mental, and spirit- 
ual powers and faculties which alone can result in per- 
fect health. 






CHAPTER 1Y. 

THE MEDICINES AND THEIR INDICATIONS. 

Pretty full instructions as to dose and the frequency 
of its repetition have been given wherever in the preced- 
ing pages a medicine has been prescribed. The ordinary 
preparations, as sold in the drug-stores, and medicines 
known as homoeopathic have been prescribed, and with 
regard to the latter, especially, it is important that the 
exact strength or potency indicated below be used in 
every case. Where the medicine is ordered in glob- 
ules those should be of ISTo. 20 size. These are best 
taken in water, and the proportion usually advised 
is twelve to the glass half full of pure soft water. Of 
this solution, a teaspoonful every hour or a tablespoon- 
f ul once every four or five hours is the usual dose. For 
a young child, six instead of twelve globules should be 
dissolved in the water. 

In case the medicine is a powder, a solution should be 
made in the same way, using for a glass half full of 
water as much of the powder as will lie piled upon a 
dime — half this quantity for a child. Liquid medicines 
should be mixed with water in the same way, using six 
drops to the half glass, or three drops for a child. Spe- 
cial directions, regarding dose, are given when required. 
In order to drop liquids accurately, it is only necessary 
to place the middle of the lower surface of the cork 



74 THE MEDICINES AND THEIR INDICATIONS. 

against the lip of the vial, so that the liquid may rest 
against the cork when the vial is tipped — it will run 
down the cork and drop from its lower edge. 

If for any reasons the globules or powders must be 
taken dry, give of the powders, at one dose, as much as 
will lie upon an old-fashioned three-cent silver piece, 
and of the globules give two if the dose prescribed be 
a teaspobnf ul, and four if it be a tablespoonf ul. It is 
better always when practicable to take the dose in water, 
or to swallow a mouthful or more of water after a dose 
taken dry. 

The medicines should be kept by themselves in 
a chest or cabinet, in a cool, dry, and clean place ; every 
vial should have its own cork, which should be marked, 
and always remain in its proper vial. The water with 
which the doses are mixed should be as pure and soft 
as possible, and the mixtures should be made fresh daily, 
throwing away whatever is left over from the preceding 
day. Keep the glass containing medicine well covered, 
and use a perfectly clean silver spoon in giving the 
doses. Never allow the spoon to remain in the medi- 
cine, and remember that a tablespoonf ul is equal to four 
teaspoonfuls. 

Balsam of Peru is a thick, reddish-brown fluid, 
sticky, and of pleasant odor, which may be had of any 
druggist. Its external use only is advised in domestic 
practice, and that as a remedy for itching of the privates 
of women, or of the back passage. It should be applied 
with caution, as it may cause an unpleasant irritation of 
the parts. 

Borax is a crystalline powder, sold by all druggists, 



BALSAM — CHINA. 75 

and useful as a local application in solution, or even in 
the dry powder, for itching of the privates. 

Bryonia alba should be used in globules of the 
first decimal potency. It is useful for complaints occur- 
ing during menstruation, especially for nose-bleed in- 
stead of, or with scanty, dark, bad-smelling menses. 
Headache in the back of the head, worse by every mo- 
tion, but better by lying quietly, and coming on with the 
menses, is also cured by it. Patients requiring this 
medicine are apt to have much thirst, to perspire easily, 
and especially to be better by keeping still, and worse 
from every motion. 

Calcarea carbon ica in globules of the sixth po- 
tency will be indicated more by the general condition of 
the patient than by any special symptoms of disease. 
Those who lack firmness of flesh or solidity of bone, 
who are flabby, fair-complexioned, inclined to be fat, 
and who perspire about the head and have cold, damp- 
feeling feet, want this medicine when the menses are 
suppressed, and also w^hen they flow with great profu- 
sion, come on too early, and last too long. The latter 
condition is more likely to affect persons of this type. 
The medicine also helps such persons when they have 
a leucorrhoea, especially if the discharge be milky and 
cause itching and burning. 

China must be purchased in globules, made from 
the mother tincture. It is chiefly required to enable the 
system to recover from great loss of fluids, as from flood- 
ing or excessive menstruation. Dizziness, ringing in the 
ears, sparks before the eyes, f aintness, and other symp- 
toms induced by such losses w r ill be relieved by its use. 



76 THE MEDICINES AND THEIR INDICATIONS. 

CoccuEus in globules of the third potency is of use 
in some forms of difficult menstruation where there is 
colic with great nervousness, quick jerking motions, 
darting pains, shuddering and the like. The menses 
are apt to come too early, and the patient feels week. 

Gelsemium should be bought in mother tincture, 
and that sold by homoeopathic pharmacies is to be pre- 
ferred. It is indicated when the head seems full of 
blood, heavy, dizzy, with blurred vision, drooping eye- 
lids, and, perhaps, double vision. If, with these condi- 
tions, we have difficult menstruation, especially if a 
membrane be discharged, and the urine be very abun- 
dant, this medicine will do good. But the dose must 
be five drops taken in hot water once in three hours. 

Ipecacuanha in globules of the third potency will 
be of great service in profuse flowing of the menses, or 
of blood from the womb, especially where the blood is 
bright red in color, and there is pain about the navel, 
and constant sickness at the stomach which is not re- 
lieved by vomiting. All complaints for which this medi- 
cine is useful are accompanied by this constant nausea. 

Lachesis in globules of the ninth potency is a very 
useful remedy for women at the " change of life," and 
is given especially for the flushes of heat of that period. 
The patient presents certain marked characteristics when 
Lack, is wanted, among which are aggravation after 
sleep, and the location of pains by preference on the 
left side of the body, or their commencing on the left 
side if they afterward pass over to the right. 

Nitrate of Silver is mentioned as one means of 
arresting a troublesome itching of the privates. For 



COCCULUS — SABINA. 77 

this purpose, it should be purchased of any druggist in 
solution, ten grains to the ounce of water. This medi- 
cine is for external, local use only, and care must be 
taken to keep the bottle in the dark. 

Phosphoric Acid in globules of the third decimal 
potency will be found a useful remedy for a weak con- 
dition of the male organs resulting in frequent and de- 
bilitating seminal emissions or " wet-dreams." The pa- 
tient will seem very much weakened by these emissions, 
and is likely to be very indifferent to all that goes on 
about him when this medicine is wanted. 

Pulsatilla in globules of the third potency isavery 
important remedy for sexual disorders in women. In 
suppressed, delayed or scanty periods, in painful men- 
struation or diarrhoea with menses, and in "whites" in 
general, especially with a thick, milky, burning dis- 
charge, it is one of the first medicines to consult. It is 
especially valuable when the trouble is caused by getting 
the feet wet and the complaints are worse in a close, 
warm room. The patient wants to get out, and is bet- 
ter in the open air, complains of chilliness and has 
symptoms which change their character or location in 
the body frequently. The patient is apt to be sleepless, 
especially in the early part of the night, although dull 
and drowsy both morning and evening. 

Sabina in globules made from the mother tincture 
is one of the best medicines to use for flooding, especial- 
ly in case of miscarriage, or of threatened miscarriage. 
There is pain through the lower part of the abdomen 
from the front to the back bone, and the blood is partly 
fluid and partly in clots as it escapes from the vagina. 



78 THE MEDICINES AND THEIK INDICATIONS. 

Sandal -wood Oil is perhaps the best single medi- 
cine known for the clap, especially in men. The crude 
oil as sold at the drug-stores should be used, but care 
must be taken to buy a pure article. The taste and 
smell on the breath are both avoided by having capsules 
filled with the proper dose, which is ten drops, or the 
oil may be dropped on a lump of sugar. Repeat the 
dose four times daily. 

Sanguinariain globules of the third potency will 
be needed at the " change of life," for flushes of heat with 
rush of blood to the head, dizziness, nausea, ringing 
in the ears, and rheumatic pains, especially in the 
shoulders. 

Silicea in globules of the twelfth potency is one 
of those important, deep-acting constitutional remedies 
like Gale, carb., but its menstrual symptoms are usually 
those of suppression and delay. The patient complains 
of backache, pains in the bones, neuralgia, perspiring 
and bad-smelling feet, and has a tendency to boils and 
felons. There is also a sense of weakness and desire to 
lie down much of the time. 

Sulphur in globules of the twelfth potency is an- 
other deep-acting, constitutional remedy, and one of its 
most important indications is an itching sensation any- 
where on the skin, hence its value in itching of the 
privates. It may be used also for profuse but short- 
lasting menses, with constipation, itching of the parts, 
flushes of heat, and burning sensation in the soles of the 
feet. 

Viburnum opulus should be purchased in mother 
tincture, and that prepared by an homoeopathic phar- 



SANDAL OIL — REPERTOKY. 



79 



macist is to be preferred. Taken in doses of ten drops 
repeated once in two or three hours, in hot water, it is 
one of the best means of relieving the cramps and colics 
associated often with difficult menstruation. Where 
this trouble returns every month the medicine should be 
taken in doses of two drops morning and evening through- 
out the interval between the periods. 



The following indications are offered as a sort 
of index to the medicines just mentioned. The symp- 
toms given are those most characteristic of the drugs to 
which they refer, with regard to their action in the sex- 
ual sphere. If a patient present one of the following 
symptoms, study what is said about the drug mentioned 
in the preceding pages, and if it then seem appropriate 
to the case give it in accordance with the directions at the 
beginning of this chapter. "When two or more medi- 
cines are named in connection with a symptom, the one 
usually the best to use, in default of other indications, is 
printed in italics. 



Abortion, bleeding of. Sabin. 
Abundant nrine, with painfnl 

menstruation. Gels. 
Aggravation after sleeping. Lach. 
Aggravation from motion. Bry. 
Aggravation in warm room. Puis. 

Backache with delayed menses. 

Sil. 
Bad odor from sweating feet. 

Sil. 
Better by keeping quiet. Bry. 
Better in open air. Puis. 



Bleeding from womb. Sabina. 

Bleeding from womb, bright 
blood, with nausea; Ipec. 

Bleeding instead of menses. Bry. 

Boils and felons, tendency to. 
Sil. 

Bones, pains in, with delayed men- 
ses. Sil. 

Burning leucorrhoea. Puis. 

Burning soles of feet. Sulph. 



11 Change of life," see 
max." 



<Cli- 



80 THE MEDICINES AND THEIR INDICATIONS. 



Changing symptoms. Puis. 

Chilliness, with disordered men- 
ses. Puis. 

1 < Clap." Sandal Oil. 

" Climax," disorders of. Lack., 
Sang. 

Clots and fluid-blood escape from 
womb. Sabin. 

Cold, damp feet. Calc. carb. 

Colic with menses. Coccul., Vib. 

Constipation with menses. Sulph. 

" Courses, " see " Menses." 

Cramps with menses. Vib. 

Debility. China, Phos. ac. 
Delayed menses. Puis. , Sil. 
Diarrhoea with menses. Puis. 
Difficult menstruation. Coccul., 

Gels., Puis. 
Difficult menstruation, with colic. 

Vib. 
Disorders of the climax. Lack., 

Sang. 
Dizziness. China, Sang. 
Dizziness with painful menses. 

Gels. 
Dysmenorrhcea. Coccul., Gels., 

Puis., Vib. 

Early and painful menstruation. 

Coccul. 
Early menses, last too long. Calc. 

carb. 
Ears, ringing in. China. , Sang. 
Emission of semen. Phos. ac. 
Excessive menstruation. China. 

Faintness. China. 

Fat, flabby flesh. Calc. carb. 

Feet, soles of, burn. Sulph. 

Feet, wetting of, causes sup- 
pressed menses. Puis. 

Flooding. China, Sabin. 

Flooding, with nausea. Ipec. 

Flushes of heat. Loch., Sang., 
Sulph. 

Foot sweats, offensive. Sil. 

Fulness of the head, with painful 
menses. Gels. 



Gonorrhoea. Sandal oil. 

Headache and nausea. Sang. 
Headache with painful menses. 

Gels. 
Headache with scanty menses. 

Bry. 
Head, rush of blood to. Sang. 
Heat flushes. Loch. , Sang., 

Sulph. 
Hemorrhage from the womb. 

Sabin. 
Hemorrhage from the womb, with 

nausea, blood bright red. 

Ipec. 

Indifference. Phos ac. 

Issue from privates of men. 
Sandal oil. 

Itching of privates. Balsam of 
Peru, Borax, Nitrate of Sil- 
ver, Sulph. 

Late menses. Sil. 
Left- sided pains. Lach. 
Leucorrhoea like milk. Calc. 

carb. 
Leucorrhoea thick, milky. Puis. 
Lie down, constant desire to. Sil. 
Long-lasting menses. Calc. carb. 

Membranous dysmenorrhoea. 
Gels. 

"Menopause," see "Climax." 

Menses delayed. Puis., SiL 

Menses profuse. Calc. carb., 
China. 

Menses profuse but brief. Sulph. 

Menses profuse with nausea. 
Ipec. 

Menses scanty. Puis. 

Menses suppressed. Calc. carb., 
Puis., Sil. 

Menses too early and last too long. 
Calc. carb. 

Menses too early, painful. Coc- 
cul. 

Menses with constipation. Sulph. 

Menstrual colic. Vib. 



REPERTORY. 



81 



Menstruation, excessive. China. 
Menstruation, painful. CoccuL, 

Gels., Puis. 
Menstruation, painful, with colic. 

Vib. 
Milky leucorrhoea. Calc. carb., 

Puis. 
Miscarriage. Sabin. 
Motion makes all symptoms 

worse. Bry. 

Nausea with flooding. Ipec. 
Navel, pain near, with nausea 

and profuse menses. Ipec. 
Nervous dysmenorrhea. Coccul. 
Neuralgia, with delayed menses. 

Sil. 
Nosebleed instead of menses. 

Bry. 

Odor of feet, bad. Sil. 

Painful menses. Coccul., Gels., 

Puis. 
Painful menses, from getting feet 

wet. Puis. 
Painful menses, with colic. Vib. 
Pains, chiefly on left side. Lach. 
Pains in abdomen, low down. 

Sabin. 
Pains, rheumatic, at climax. 

Sang. 
11 Periods," see " Menses." 
Perspiration on the feet, of bad 

odor. Sil. 
Perspiration on the head. Calc. 

carb. 
Privates, itching of. Balsam of 

Peru, Borax, Nitrate of Sil- 
ver, Sulph. 
Profuse menses. Calc. carb., 

China. 
Profuse menses, with nausea. 

Ipec. 
Profuse, short - lasting menses. 

Sulph. 
Profuse urination, with painful 

menstruation. Gels. 



Rheumatic pains at climax. Sang. 
Ringing in ears. China, Sang. 
" Running " from privates of 

men. Sandal oil. 
Rush of blood to the head. Sang. 
Rush of blood to the head, with 

painful menses. Gels. 

Scanty menses. Puis. 

Scanty menses, with nosebleed. 
Bry. 

Seminal emissions. Phos. ac. 

Short-lasting menses. Sulph. 

Sick stomach, with flooding. Ipec. 

Sight blurred, with painful men- 
ses. Gels. 

Skin, itching of. Sulph. 

Sleep makes all symptoms worse. 
Lach. 

Soles of feet burn. Sulph. 

Sparks before eyes. China. 

Spermatorrhoea. Phos. ac. 

Suppressed menses. Calc. carb. , 
Puis., Sil. 

Sweat on the head. Calc. carb. 

Symptoms ever changing. Puis. 

Tendency to boils and felons. Sil. 
Thick, milky leucorrhoea. Puis. 

Urethritis. Sandal oil. 
Urine abundant, with painful 
menses. Gels. 

Vicarious menstruation. Bry. 
Vomiting, with profuse menses. 
Ipec. 

Weakness of male sexual organs. 
Phos. ac. 

Weakness, wants to lie down. Sil. 

" Wet dreams. " Phos. ac. 

Wet feet cause painful or sup- 
pressed menses Puis. 

" Whites," like milk. Calc. carb. 

1 * Whites, " like milk, thick. Puis. 

Worse after sleep. Lach. 

Worse from every motion. Bry. 

Worse in close, warm room. Puis. 



INDEX. 



Abortion, 52 
Absence of the hymen, 64 
Activity for girls, 87 
Administration of medicine, 73 
Advantages of physical exercise, 
13 

of play, 12 

of separate beds, 70 
Age, proper, for marriage, 68 
Amenorrhea, 45 
Atresia (closure) of urethra, 10 

of vagina, 45 
Attention to male organs before 

puberty, 9 
Avoidance of offspring, 70 

Balsam of Peru, 74 
Bed-chamber, hygiene of, 70 
Beds, separate, advantages of, 70 
Bleeding from the womb, 52 

instead of menses, 47 

piles, 53 
" Blue balls," 31 
Borax, 74 

Boys should be taught, 14, 16 
Bryonia, 75 
Buboes, 31 

Calcarea carbonica, 75 
Care of medicines, 74 
Caresses, effects of, 26 
Causes of gonorrhoea, 29 

of syphilis, 33 
Cessation of menses, 53 
Chamber, hygiene of, 70 
Chancre, 32 
Chancroid, 31 



"Change of life," 53 

China, 75 

Choice of a school for boys, 18 

of a school for girls, 61 
Cinchona, see China, 75 
Circumcision, 9 

time for, 12 
Clap, 28 

Cleanliness of privates, 38 
Climax, the, 53 
Closed vagina, 45, 59 

urethra, 10 
Cocculus, 76 
Concluding advice, 71 
Consanguinity in marriage, 68 
Consummation of marriage, 63, 67 
Continence, effects of, 23 
Courses (see Menstruation), 42 
Cousins, marriage of, 68, 69 
Cure of gonorrhoea, 30 

of masturbation, 18 

of spermatorrhoea, 19 

Danger of prostitution, 24 
Decline of life, 67 
Derangements of menstruation, 43 
Desires, sexual, in girls, 37 

sexual, method of repressing, 
13 

sexual source of, 15, 22 
Diet for gonorrhoea, 31 

for spermatorrhoea, 19 
Difficult menstruation, 48 
Discharge of semen, 23 
Diseases of men, 27 
Dizziness (see Vertigo), 54 
Dose of medicines, 73 



84 



INDEX. 



Douche, vaginal, 56 
Dysmenorrhea, 48 

Eakly attention to male organs, 9 
Education for girls, 61, 62 
Effects of caresses, 27 

of continence, 23 

of neglecting privates of girls, 
39 
Elongated foreskin, 10 
Emission of semen, 23 
Emissions, involuntary, 15, 19, 20 
Engagements, long, 26 
Evidences of virginity, 64 
Evils of prostitution, 17, 24 
Exhaustion, sexual, 25 

Females, sexual health of, 36 

First menses delayed, 45 

Flooding, 52 

Fluor albus (see Leucorrhoea), 55 

Flushes of heat, 55 

Foments, 48 

Foreskin, the, 10 

too long, 10 
Frequency of indulgence, 26, 65 

Gelsemium, 76 

Girls or boys produced at will, 71 
sexual instincts in, 37 
sexual instruction for, 39, 41 

Glans penis, 10 

Gleet, 30 

Gonorrhoea, 28 
not trivial, 29 

Hakd chancre, 32 

Harm of long engagements, 26 

of masturbation, 17 

of prostitution, 17, 24 
Health, sexual, in marriage, 67 

sexual, of female, 36 

sexual, of male, 9 
Hemorrhoids, 53 
Heredity, 41 
Hot flushes, 55 

foment, 48 
Hygiene of bed-chamber, 70 



Hymen, the, 64 
imperforate, 45 

Impediments to marriage, 34, 59, 

68 
Imperforate hymen, 45 
Importance of general health for 

girls, 37 
Impotency, 34 
Index of symptoms, 79 
Inducements to marry, 62 
Indulgence of sexual desire3 

never necessary, 21 
Inflammation of urethra (urethri- 
tis), 28 
Injections for leucorrhoea, 56 
Instincts, sexual, source of, 14, 22 
Instruction for boys, 14, 16 
for girls, 38, 41 
for women, 62 
Intercourse, sexual, never neces- 
sary, 21 
Ipecacuanha, 76 
Irregular periods, 43 
Irritation of the privates, 38 
Itching of the privates, 58 

Lachesis, 76 
Leucorrhoea, 55 

Licentiousness, temptation to, 25 
Life, decline of, 67 
Limitation of offspring, 70 
List of medicines, 8 
Long engagements, 26 

Maidenhead, 64 

closed, 45 
Male organs, early attention to, 9 

sexual health of, 9 
Marriage, 60 

age for, 68 

consummation of, 63, 67 

for women, 60 

health in, 67 

impediments to, 34, 59, 68 

inducements to, 62 

in syphilis, 33 

meaning of, 62 



INDEX. 



85 



Marriage, never necessary, 21 

object of, 62 

obstacles to, 68 

of cousins, 69 

temperament in, 69 

time for, 68 
Masturbation, harm of, 16 

in girls, 40 

treatment of, 13, 19, 40 
Meaning of marriage, 62 

of sexual instincts, 22 
Medicines, the, 73 

care of, 74 

dose of, 73 

list of, 8 
Men, diseases of, 27 
Menopause, 53 

Menorrhagia (see Profuse Men- 
ses), 51 
Menses, painful, 48 

profuse, 51 

suppressed or delayed, 45 
Menstrual disorders, 43 
Menstruation, 42 

object of, 47 

vicarious, 47 
Methods of prostitutes, 25 

of sexual intercourse, 23, 66 
Metrorrhagia (see Flooding), 52 
Miscarriage, 52 
Mixed schools for girls, 61 
Motherhood, meaning of, 42 

Natural involuntary emissions, 

20. 23 
Nitrate of silver, 76 
Nosebleed instead of menses, 47 
Nurses, care in selecting, 12, 36 



Objections to certain sports, 12 
Object of marriage, 62 

of menstruation, 47 
Obstacles to marriage, 34, 59, 68 
Offspring, avoidance of. 70 
Oil of sandalwood, 78 
Onanism, harm of, 16 

treatment of, 18 



Painful menstruation, 48 

Periods (see Menstruation), 42 

Phimosis, 10 

Phosphoric acid, 77 

Physical exertion, advantages of, 

for boys, 13 
Piles, 53 
Play, advantages of, for children, 

12, 37 
Pleasure, sexual, possible in the 

earliest years, 12 
Power of quacks, 17, 28, 35 

of temptation, 25 
Pox (see Syphilis), 31 
Predetermining sex of offspring, 

71 
Preparing girls for puberty, 39 
Privates, itching of, 58 

washing of, 38 
Production of sexes at will, 71 
Profuse menstruation, 51 
Proper age for marriage, 68 

use of sexual organs, 15 
Prostitutes, tricks of, 25 
Prostitution, danger of, 24 

harm of, 17, 24 
Pruritus (see Itching), 58 
Puberty, changes at, 14 

not the beginning of sexual 
life, 9 

preparing girls for, 39 

signs of, 14 

time of, in girls, 40 
Pulsatilla, 77 

Quacks, power of, 17, 28, 35 

Reasons for circumcision, 11 
Regularity of menstruation, 42 
Relative age in marriage, 68 
Repertory, 79 

Repetition of sexual act, 26, 65 
Repression of sexual desires, 13 
Results of continence, 23 

Sabina, 77 
Sandalwood oil, 78 



INDEX. 



Sanguinaria, 78 

School, choice of, for boys, 18 
choice of, for girls, 61 

Selecting nurses, 12, 36 

Self-abuse, harm of, 16 
in girls, 40 
treatment of, 18, 40 

Semen, 22 

discharge of, 23 

Seminal emissions, 19 
fluid, 22 

Separate beds, advantages of, 70 

Sexes, production of, at will, 71 

Sexual acts no shame, 66 

acts, repetition of, 26, 65 
acts, significance of, 66 - 
desires in girls, 37 
desires, method of repressing, 

13 
desires, strength of, 21 
exhaustion, 25 
health in marriage, 67 
health of female, 36 
health of male, 9 
indulgence never necessary, 

21 
instincts, meaning of, 22 
instincts, source of, 14, 22 
instruction for boys, 14, 16 
instruction for girls, 38, 41 
instruction for women, 60, 62 
intercourse, methods of, 24, 

66 
life begins before birth, 9 
organs, proper use of, 15 
pleasure aroused by certain 
sports, 12 

Significance of sexual act, 66 
of sexual organs, 41 

Signs of puberty, 14 

Silicea, 78 

Silver, nitrate of, 76 

Sore, venereal, 31 

Source of sexual instincts in men, 
15, 22 

Sperm, 22 



Spermatorrhoea, 19 

Sphere of women, 41 

Sterility, 34 

Strength of sexual desires, 21 

Stricture, 30 

Sulphur, 78 

Suppressed first menses, 45 

Symptoms, index of, 79 

Syphilis, 31 

Teach the boys, 14, 16 
the girls, 38, 41 

Temperament in marriage, 68 

Temptation to prostitution, 25 

Tetter, 32 

Tight foreskin, 10 

Time for circumcision, 12 
for the wedding, 63 
of puberty in girls, 42, 44 

Treatment of gonorrhoea, 30 
of masturbation, 18, 40 
of spermatorrhoea, 1 9 

True meaning of sexual instincts, 
22 

Urethra, closed, 10 

Urethritis, 28 

Use, proper, of sexual organs, 15 

Vagina, closed, 45 
Vaginal douche, 56 
Venereal diseases, 27 

sore, 31 
Vertigo, 54 
Viburnum, 78 
Vicarious menstruation, 47 
Virginity, tests of, 64 

Washing privates of girls, 38 

Wedding-day, the, 63 

" Wet dreams," 19 

What boys should be taught, 14, 

16 
" Whites," 55 

Who should not marry, 33, 59, 68 
Woman's sphere, 41 



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